A Universal Adventure
by AnimeSnowflake
Summary: yugiohxnaruto crossover Naruto and friends are bored, so they try out a new jutsu. What happens when Yugi and his friends are sent to the naruto world?
1. Two Odd Afternoons

**Hi, everyone. AnimeSnowflake here. I finally made my crossover story, and it has two of my favorite animes. SQUEE Well, there are a few things that I need to mention. First, in the Naruto world, the time period is after Tsunade becomes Hokage, but before Sasuke turns evil. In the Yu-Gi-Oh world, the time period is before the beginning of the last season of the show. Also, I will put previews at the end, kind of like they do for the Naruto episodes, so wish me luck. Now, one last thing.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Yu-Gi-Oh**

**Now, enjoy!**

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**Two Odd Afternoons:A New Adventure Begins**

It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon in the Hidden Leaf Village. Everyone had been in high spirits ever since Tsunade became the 5th Hokage, everyone's injuries disappeared as if they were never there, and there was not a single cloud in the sky.

Yes, it was a perfect day. That is, until a scream was heard throughout the entire village.

"AAAAAUUUUUGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!"

The extremely loud and obnoxious outburst came from none other than the number one hyperactive knucklehead ninja. He had managed to make Sakura fall over from shock of the yell, and he also caused Sasuke to look up from a jutsu study book to glare at this really annoying shinobi.

While he continued to glare at Naruto, Sakura had managed to come to her senses and yell, "Dang it, Naruto! Can't you be quiet for just a few minutes?"

"But Sakuraaa," Naruto whined to his comrade and long-time crush, "I'm just sooo booooooored! There's nothing to do today!"

Sakura and Sasuke had to agree with the blond with this statement. That morning, Kakashi had told the three that he had an important mission for that day, so he officially gave squad seven the day off. However, since they didn't often get days off, they had nothing to do, and this led to where there are now: sitting on the outskirts of town near the woods.

Naruto began to constantly whine to Sakura about the lack of things to do. To shut him up, the pink-haired kunoichi asked, "If you're so bored, Naruto, why don't you try out some new jutsus?"

Naruto just blankly stared at her. Then he said, "This is no time for jokes, Sakura! I just learned the Rasengan two weeks ago, and I'm exhausted. What makes you think I would want to learn a new jutsu?"

This made Sakura boil with rage. Seeing the expression on her face, Naruto began to freak out, but before she could beat him to a bloody pulp, Sasuke saved the day.

He just said, "Come over here, you idiots. I found a very interesting summoning jutsu."

Completely ignoring the insult, Sakura skipped over to the tree that the Uchiha sat by, hoping for a little romantic moment. Naruto, however, took a different attitude towards this action.

He yelled at both of his comrades, "WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH YOU GUYS?!?! I may be bored, but I'm not desperate! I will not be swayed by anything you say!"

As Naruto began to walk off, Sakura looked at the pages and stared in amazement. She exclaimed, "Cool! It's a jutsu that you can use to summon people from a different universe!"

This caught Naruto's interest. He automatically forgot about his last comment and shouted, "Seriously? GIVE ME THAT BOOK!"

He ran to their tree at the speed of light and quickly grabbed the book from Sasuke's hands. Not only did he manage to break a speed record, but he also managed to make Sakura and Sasuke fall flat on their backs. As soon as everyone calmed down, they all read through the pages containing this jutsu.

The directions were pretty much the same for each universe, except the hand signs would be different to symbolize different words and different universes. After about two minutes, Naruto said excitedly, "Hey! We should definitely try to pull off this jutsu!"

Sakura was annoyed by his sudden mood swing, so she yelled, "ARE YOU REALLY THAT EASY TO SWAY?!?! What happened to 'What makes you think I want to learn a new jutsu'?"

He realized his major mistake in getting Sakura into one of her moods, so Naruto quickly said, "I'm sorry, Sakura, but this is different. It's a summoning jutsu, so I won't have to put effort into it! It'll be a piece of cake!"

"Well, say what you want, you loser," Sasuke said with a smirk. "Did you even decide which version of this jutsu you're going to attempt?"

The blond stated, "First of all, I won't attempt it. I'll do it! Second, I picked this one!" After saying his last sentence, Naruto shoved the book into the Uchiha's face, pointing at the version that he would do. The version Naruto had picked just had one word by the description: shadow.

"Why this universe, Naruto?" the raven-haired boy asked the ramen king.

The blond automatically yelled, "The word 'shadow' makes the universe sound tough! I bet the people I summon would be able to help us!"

"Help us with what?" Sakura asked. Then, the whole group fell silent. Sakura had remembered about Orochimaru and his motives involving Sasuke, but Naruto was thinking more about the Akatsuki at the moment.

A few minutes later, they walked over to a clearing in the middle of the woods to perform the jutsu. While Naruto read the steps to perform the jutsu, his teammates went to sit on the sidelines to watch.

"Step 1," Naruto read, "put the shown symbol on an item of choice using your blood." He looked at the symbol, which was the strangest looking eyeball that he had ever seen. Then, he bit his thumb, took out a kunai, and drew the symbol on one of the blade ends.

Then, he continued to read, "Step 2: Make sure that your blood is placed on as many fingers as you want spirits."

He sat there in a daze, wondering what the heck that step was exactly. He looked at Sakura with confusion in his deep blue eyes. Sakura groaned and said, "It means if five of your fingers are covered in blood, then you'll summon five spirits, you moron!"

"Oh. Thanks, Sakura!" Naruto said to her. He went back to his business and made sure that his blood was placed on five of fingers. He thought, "The more people I summon, the better off we'll be, and the more I'll impress Sakura!" A grin was spread wide on his face until he came to the final step.

"After making these preparations," Naruto read out loud, "grab the item you used in step 1 and perform the jutsu."

Suddenly, the tension became increasingly high between the three shinobi. Naruto worried that the jutsu would fail, Sakura was afraid that they were tampering with things beyond their control, and Sasuke feared that Sakura would glomp him because of her feelings of fear.

After he took a deep breath, Naruto grabbed the kunai and began to make the hand signs. "Well, this is it," he thought to himself.

"Universal Summoning Jutsu!"

Naruto brought his hand down with the knife, but instead of a puff of smoke, a bright, blinding light took its place. Naruto felt terrible as this light continued to shine, and it was several minutes before it finally stopped. By the time the light disappeared, Naruto was pretty disoriented. As Sakura and Sasuke came out of the bushes (they took cover when the light appeared), Naruto noticed something.

"Hey! Where did my kunai go?"

Sakura groaned, yet again, and said in an annoyed tone, "You didn't read everything about the jutsu, did you?"

Naruto gave her a look that showed that the pink-haired girl was right. So she replied as calmly as possible, "The book said that the item used is transported to the universe that you try to summon people from. Then, the first five spirits that come in contact with the object are transported to our world. When all five are transported, your item will come back to you."

Naruto was furious! Not only did he lose one of his ninja weapons, but now he here's that there is a chance that it won't work at all! He wanted to hit something, but the matter was out of his hands now. He and his comrades could only wait.

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"C'mon, Yug, tell us. Why do you want a job?" 

"Yeah, Yugi, tell us!"

It a cloudy, breezy day in Domino, and it just so happened that Yugi, Joey, Tristan, and Tea were exploring the downtown area. For the past two hours, they have been passing different buildings while searching for a place where Yugi could work.

At the moment, Joey and Tristan were asking for the 12th time why Yugi wanted to get a job all of a sudden. Meanwhile, Tea was defending the little guy in this debate. She told the boys, "Guys, lay off! Yugi already told you why he wanted a job. He said he needed the money."

"We know, Tea!" Tristan argued back. "We just want to know what he's going to use the money for!"

"Yeah! You guys just don't get how concerned we are, do you?" Joey shouted at Tea.

She just said, "I would probably 'get it' better than you two morons!"

"It's okay, guys," Yugi said, trying to calm down his taller friends. "I just want to earn money because . . . . because . . . ."

Yugi was speechless on what to do in the current situation. "Yami, what should I do?" he asked his close companion. "I can't tell them that I'm trying to raise enough money to go to Egypt, or they might offer to come with me!"

Yami just asked, "Why is that a bad thing, Yugi?'

"Well. . ." Yugi didn't know how to word it exactly, but he didn't have to.

"Don't worry. I understand," Yami calmly told his closest friend, "You just don't want to put them in danger again, right?"

Yugi silently nodded and that was the end of that. Joey and Tristan were about to ask again when Tea suddenly grabbed the two by the collars of their jackets and dragged them in front of an empty building. "We've got to check it out!" she said to her friends.

They entered the building and saw that it contained nothing but cardboard boxes. Everyone was about to leave when all of a sudden, Joey said, "Wait a minute. What's a knife doing in the middle of the floor?"

Everyone turned around and looked at the strange knife. Yugi was the only one that went closer to observe it. After a few seconds, he and Yami both confirmed in their minds that this wasn't an ordinary knife; it was a weapon most likely used by a ninja. Yugi then saw a similar symbol on the blade.

"Yami," he told his friend quietly, "that looks like the same eye on the millennium puzzle."

Yami agreed, and then he said, "We should be careful, Yugi. I'm sensing some strange energy from this weapon."

After a moment of thinking, and some background noise from Yugi's pals, he decided to touch the knife. As his fingertips gently brushed the blade, however, a bright, blinding light surrounded him and his friends. They began to feel a strange, sickening feeling in their bodies and screamed in agony.

The last thing Yugi saw was the knife, disappearing into the light. Then, he passed out.

* * *

Naruto sat alone at the ramen bar as the sun began to set. 

"I can't believe I wasted my time with that jutsu!" Naruto thought angrily as he slurped his ramen. "The next time Sakura suggests this, I'm not going to do it! I don't even think that these people are going to come! What if this is all a practical jo-"

His thoughts were interrupted when a kunai knife landed right in front of him. He almost began to freak out, but then the blond recognized the symbol on the blade as that 'bloody eyeball'. He was suddenly filled with excitement.

He exclaimed, "Yes! They're finally here!"

* * *

**Naruto: All right! Finally, I get to see the results of my awesome new techniques! I can't wait to see those cool, awesome, kick-butt, ninj-(sees them) Hey, wait a minute! They aren't ninja at all! Who the heck are these guys, and what's with the guy with the freaky hair style? WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON HERE?!?!**

**Next time-Enconter In The Forest: Strangers Revealed!

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Well, there it is! I hope it's not too bad. If so, I'm so sorry!!!!! Please review, and see my other stories if you have the chance. Peace out!**


	2. Encounter in the Forest

**Good evening, ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to chapter two of my crossover. I'm so glad that people reviewed, and I'm really happy that some people actually like it! It means a lot to me! Well, anyways, I believe I forgot to say what outfits the Yu-Gi-Oh characters were wearing. Let's just say they were wearing the clothes that they wear for the final season. If I screw up in describing their outfits, I'm sorry! Also, in this chapter, you will discover a twist I put in this story. It should be obvious, so I don't want people to tell me what it is, because I'm the writer, and I already know! If you don't figure it out, then I guess you'll know eventually. Well, I've been rambling too much, so anyhoo, moving on!(and yes, I'm using the American versions of both shows)**

**Disclaimer: If I owned either of these shows, do you really think that I'd make Lee not have a girlfriend or have the last season of Yu-Gi-Oh end the way it did?**

**Oh, one more thing. This chappie has a previously part at the beginning, and that and flashbacks will be italicized from now on.**

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_"I can't believe I wasted my time with that jutsu!" Naruto thought angrily as he slurped his ramen. "The next time Sakura suggests this, I'm not going to do it! I don't even think that these people are going to come! What if this is all a practical jo-"_

_His thoughts were interrupted when a kunai knife landed right in front of him. He almost began to freak out, but then the blond recognized the symbol on the blade as that 'bloody eyeball'. He was suddenly filled with excitement._

_He exclaimed, "Yes! They're finally here!"_

**Encounter in the Forest: Strangers Revealed**

The sun was setting in the distance, filling the sky with colors of red and orange. There was barely a cloud in sight on this beautiful afternoon. This was the exact kind of weather that Tea Gardener awoke to.

As she got up from the ground, she asked herself, "Where am I?"

While she slowly stood and wiped the dirt off of her skirt, she observed her surroundings. She was in a clearing somewhere in a forest, and trees seemed to be surrounding the area.

After a moment of thinking, she came down to a conclusion. Tea thought, "I guess whatever happened led to this, but why would we teleport into a forest? It just seems strange."

Suddenly, she realized something; her friends weren't with her! She got into a panic and ran straight into the forest to look for her friends. While she ran, she screamed, "Yugi! Joey! Tristan! Where are you?!?"

She was afraid that her friends were in danger, and she wanted to lose those feelings of fear. Then, after a few minutes of running around, she suddenly tripped. When she looked to see what tripped her, she saw two pairs of legs sticking out of the bushes.

"I think I know who these pairs of legs belong to, and I hope I'm right," Tea thought to herself. Sure enough, as she yanked at their legs, Joey and Tristan were pulled into the clearing. They were sleeping peacefully, almost as if it was a normal day.

Tea groaned; she was kind of mad that they would be sleeping like that while she was running around scared to death. She then smacked them across the head. Half of her reason was to wake them up, and the other half was just because they annoyed her with their peaceful looks. Immediately, the two boys woke up and yelled in unison, "YEOUCH! Tea! What the heck was that for?!?"

"Oh, come on!" she replied angrily. "I didn't hit you that hard! Besides, you should be more concerned about where we are!"

It was at this moment that the boys forgot about their pain and observed the area. After a few minutes, Tristan said, "Where are we?"

"Don't ask me. I have as much knowledge as you guys," Tea said truthfully.

"Oh, great!" Joey said. "Why does this always happen to us? Whenever we have get-togethers, it always ends up with-" He paused and realized that something wasn't right.

"Tea, have you seen Yugi?"

"Wait, wasn't he with you guys?" Tea asked them. After seeing them shake their heads, they waited for a few milliseconds. Then, all three of them got terrified looks on their faces, and they immediately began running through the forest, hoping with all their hearts that their small friend was okay.

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Naruto had been wandering through the woods for the past fifteen minutes, and his patience was wearing thin.

"I don't get it!" the blond yelled at no one in particular. "These people should have shown up by now! Where are they?"

As he walked into another clearing that had an old oak tree in the center, he said, "If Sasuke and Sakura are playing a joke on me, someone's gonna pay!"

Suddenly, he stopped. Naruto could have swore he heard snapping branches from above him. He could tell that someone was hiding in the tree, and he thought, "I knew it. They were just messing with me!"

"Come out now, Sasuke!" Naruto shouted, thinking that it was him in the tree. "If you think you can beat me, show yourself, you coward! I'm not scared of anything!"

He then hit the tree with enough force to break the branch above him, but he didn't expect the sight he saw. Apparently, someone was holding on to the branch for dear life, and the branch was left dangling on the tree. Naruto spun around and came face to face with a pair of frightened and innocent amethyst eyes.

"AHHHHH!"

They both screamed at each other until the branch finished breaking and fell to the ground, taking the stranger with it.

As soon as Naruto calmed himself, he shouted, "WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT FOR?!? YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO PULL A CHEAP MOVE LIKE THAT, YOU . . . huh?"

He suddenly realized that this boy couldn't possibly be Sasuke. He looked nothing like him! The boy had the craziest hairstyle Naruto had ever seen, with it being mostly black with pink and blond streaks and blond bangs. He wore a navy blue jacket and pants to match with a black shirt to go underneath. Finally, Naruto noticed that the boy had a gold pendant around his neck, and it had strangely enough the same eye on it that the blond had used earlier for the summon.

"Who are you?" he quietly asked with curiosity. Then he realized something and said, "Wait a second: golden object, strange clothes, hair that looks like it would eat you. . ."

Hearing this, Yugi sighed and thought, "Why is it always my hair and size that people find strange?"

As he stood up, Naruto said, "That could only mean one thing," There was a two-second pause, and then Naruto caused the boy to fall down by shouting energetically, "THE UNIVERSAL SUMMONING JUTSU WORKED! YEAH! ALLRIGHT! WOO-HOO!"

He kept on shouting in joy while Yugi just sat on the floor, staring at him.

"Who is that, Yugi?" Yami asked his friend.

"I don't know, Yami," he answered through their minds, "but he seems so much like Joey. . . . . . Oh no! Our friends might be in trouble!"

Naruto was still shouting with joy when he heard the boy say, "Um . . . excuse me, but. . ."

The blond then rushed over to him and said, "Oh, man! I forgot to introduce myself! I'm so sorry about that, man! My name is Naruto Uzumaki! Believe it! What's your name?"

He received a moment of silence. Then the other boy finally said, "My name is Yugi, Yugi Muto."

Naruto suddenly felt a strong headache. "What's going on?" he thought. "I feel like that name rings a bell. I don't remember meeting him, though. Why do I feel so weird?"

"Are you all right, Naruto?" Yugi asked, concerned when the blond gripped his head.

Realizing that he was looking quite strange to him, Naruto brought his hand away from his head and said, "Oh, I feel fine! It's okay, really! Just a headache. . . . Oh, do I know you, by any chance?"

"I don't . . . think so," Yugi responded, feeling a bit unsure about himself.

"Yugi! What's wrong?" Yami asked, seeing his worried face.

"Oh, nothing," Yugi calmly told him. "It's just I feel like I might have seen him before. It's impossible, isn't it?"

For a while, Yami thought about this. Finally, he replied, "I don't think it's impossible, but it seems very unlikely that you would know him."

". . . You're right," he thought. "It's probably just his personality that makes me feel like this. Now, I should worry about my friends' safety."

"Hey, Naruto," he said, "Could you help me find my other friends?"

Naruto stared at him for a moment and thought, "Okay, so this guy isn't a ninja, that's for sure. Dang it! I thought I would've summoned stronger people! . . . Oh, well. Maybe his friends are tougher."

"Sure!" he said to his new made friend, and he led him through the forest. "If we're lucky, my other friends will have found them by now!"

With this being said, they left the area.

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"Yugi! Where are you?"

Tea shouted for her friend for what seemed like the one hundredth time. With each passing moment, her level of fear increased. She was about to run and shout some more, but then Joey, who was right behind her, collapsed from exhaustion.

She turned around to see him sitting on the ground, panting and out of breath. As she tried to bring Joey to his feet, she said, "What are you doing? This is no time to rest! We have to find Yugi!"

"But Tea," Joey complained, "we've been searching for hours, and I'm exhausted! Can't we take a little break?"

"Oh, please!" she said angrily. "We've only been searching for ten minutes, and isn't what you're doing right now considered a break?"

Before Joey began to complain even more, Tristan came to join them.

"Well, I couldn't find him," he said as soon as Tea was about to ask him where Yugi was. "Don't worry about it, though. I'm sure he can look out for himself."

"It's not that!" Tea said. "It's just, what if something strange shows up?" After she said this, Tea looked even more afraid for Yugi.

"Okay, now you're acting stupid, Tea," Tristan said. "There isn't anything odd in this forest."

Then Joey chimed in, saying, "Yeah, Tea! What do you think is going to be in this forest, anyways? Assassins? Evil sorcerers? A fire-breathing dragon?"

As soon as the blond said this, a huge wave of fire passed behind him, and he screamed and ran behind Tea.

"Son of a Red Eyes! What the heck was that?" he shouted.

"It must be a fire-breathing dragon!" Tristan said in a panic.

The two boys began running around like lunatics at that moment, and they kept screaming, "AHHHH! A FIRE-BREATHING DRAGON IS GONNA KILL US!"

Tea wasn't so sure about this, but she did know that they were in danger if something, or someone, caused that fire and wanted to hurt them.

Suddenly, after Joey and Tristan stopped running in circles, Joey heard a voice from behind him say, "You're such a loser."

Then, the blond was filled with blind fury and shouted, "WHO DO YOU THINK YOU'RE CALLING A LO . . . ser?"

As he saw who was behind him, Joey saw a boy who had raven black hair. He also had deep onyx eyes and a cold stare that unfortunately reminded him and his friends about a certain CEO. The boy wore a navy blue T-shirt with white shorts as well.

Suddenly, Joey noticed something and began holding in laughter. The raven-haired boy raised an eyebrow at him, and Tea asked, "What's so funny?"

Before the blond burst out into laughter, he shouted, "His hair looks like a chicken's ass!"

Then, he began laughing so hard that he fell to the ground while everybody else stared at him like he was a crazy person. Later, Tristan joined in saying, "You're right. It is a chicken's ass!"

While the two boys laughed their little hearts out, Tea sighed and thought, "At this rate, we'll never find Yugi." So she tried to grab her friends' attention and began saying, "Tristan, Joey. . ."

"Don't you dare laugh at my Sasuke!"

Tea stared at the girl who the voice belonged to. The pink-haired girl shouted angrily at her friends at smacked them incredibly hard around the backs of their heads. Tristan yelled in pain while Joey shouted, "She hits harder than Tea does!"

Suddenly, everybody stopped, realizing that they didn't know each other at all.

As Tea took a closer look at the girl, she noticed that she had green eyes, a wide forehead, and a red outfit. Also, they noticed that they both had matching headbands with an odd symbol in the middle.

Meanwhile, Sakura and Sasuke observed these new people. There was one girl who had short, brown hair and blue eyes. She wore a red skirt with a sleeveless black shirt and white boots.

There were also two boys. One had brown hair and eyes, and he wore black pants with a white shirt and a blue jacket. The other had blond hair and brown eyes. He wore black pants, a blue shirt, and a white jacket.

Finally, Sakura said to her teammate, "Wow, I guess Naruto was able to pull off the summoning jutsu after all, and I thought he was just joking when he told me."

"Wait a minute," Tea asked, "what do you mean 'summoning jutsu'? Were you the ones who sent us here, and who exactly is this 'Naruto' you're talking about?"

Before they received any answers, though, a boy jumped from the bushes, surprising Tea and her friends. This boy had blond hair and deep blue eyes that were filled with excitement at the moment. He wore an orange outfit, and it looked like he had whiskers on his face.

"Sakura, Sasuke, you won't believe what just happened! I found. . ." he stopped speaking and saw the three new faces. Then he exclaimed, "Cool! You found some of them too! I'm so stoked that this universal summoning actually worked!"

"Wait! That means this is a different UNIVERSE?!?" Joey yelled at him.

"Hold on, Joey," Tea said, realizing something. "Did you say, 'too'?"

It was at this moment that Yugi came into the clearing and said, "Hey, guys. I see you've met Naruto."

"Oh my gosh!" his friends said as they ran over to him and formed a group hug. "We've been so worried about you!"

While they were reunited, the Uchiha showed no emotion whatsoever, and Sakura stared shockingly at them.

As Naruto joined his friends, the pink-haired kunouichi said, "That's some crazy hairstyle!"

"I know!" the blond replied to his crush. "Doesn't it look like it would jump up and eat you?"

"Naruto!" Sakura shouted, disgusted that he would say something so disrespectful.

"Well it does!" Naruto said. "I mean, his hair is even stranger than Bushy Brow's! Don't you think so, Sasuke?"

Sasuke just ignored them and continued to stare suspiciously at the strange people in front of him. Naruto became annoyed that he wasn't answering his question, and he began waving his hand in front of his rival's face and saying, "Hello? Earth to Sasuke. Is anyone in there?"

Ignoring the blonde's actions, the Uchiha asked, "Who are you strangers?"

Everybody stared at him for a moment. It was after a few seconds that Naruto said, "Oh, man! I can't believe I forgot to introduce myself again! I'm Naruto Uzumaki, and one day, I'll be Hokage! Believe-"

"Will you SHUT UP?!?" Sakura yelled while hitting him across the back of the head. "Oh, sorry about him. Naruto tends to annoy everyone with the whole 'Hokage' thing. By the way, my name is Sakura Haruno."

The four of them just stared at her. Joey and Tristan were officially terrified by her, Tea seemed to admire her strength, and Yugi just stared blankly at her the entire time.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Tea finally said. "My name is Tea Gardener," then she gestured to her two taller friends, "and these are my friends, Tristan and Jo-"

"I can handle my own introduction, Tea!" the blond teenager suddenly shouted. Tea groaned, but she let him go on, hoping that he wouldn't make himself look entirely foolish. Then he spoke.

"The name's Joey Wheeler, all-time champ at Duel Monsters, so if you're smart, you'll show me some respect!" he said proudly.

". . . . . . . ." There was complete silence, and everyone either spoke quietly amongst themselves or remained silent.

"There he goes again," Tea sighed.

"Isn't Yugi the master of Duel Monsters?" Tristan asked.

"Let it go, Tristan," Yugi said calmly.

Meanwhile, Sakura wondered why he was so clueless like Naruto. Naruto, on the other hand, was quite amazed and was convince that he was the master of Duel Monsters (even though he had no idea what it was). Sasuke, however, made the first out loud comment.

"Hn. . . Whatever. You're such a loser."

Joey anime fell, and he felt very mad. "He is TOO much like Kaiba! I can tell I'm not gonna like this guy!" Joey thought to himself.

"Hm," Tristan thought aloud, "You kind of remind me of someone we know. What's your name again?"

". . . I don't think I need to answer that," Sasuke replied. This caused angry growls to come from Tristan, Joey, and Naruto, who really didn't like his attitude.

Suddenly, he said, "I won't say, that is, until you give me your name," and this whole time, he was referring to the tri-colored haired boy.

There was an awkward silence, and he answered, "I'm Yugi Muto."

"Hm. . . I'm Sasuke Uchiha." The raven-haired boy replied.

There was an incredibly long silence to follow afterwards, and the entire time, Sasuke continued to look suspiciously at Yugi with his cold stare. Finally, after a few minutes, he walked past the bushes, bringing Naruto and Sakura with him.

"Hey!" Joey shouted. "Where do you think you're going?"

Sasuke paused right in front of the bushes for a brief moment. Then, he said, "We need to have a talk. Wait here." After that, he and his comrades disappeared behind the bushes.

As soon as they were out of sight, Tea had everyone sit down so they could try to figure out what to do.

"Apparently, this isn't anywhere in our universe, much less near Domino," she said, "so how are we going to get back home?"

"I say we find that fire-breathing dragon!" Joey exclaimed. "We could try and tame it, and then, it would take us home."

" . . . Okay, that idea is just stupid, Joey," Tea said. "Dragons don't exist, and even if they did, I've never heard of a dragon that could travel between universes!"

"Oh, yeah," Joey said, feeling stupid.

Everybody thought some more, and finally, Yugi said, "Maybe we should ask Naruto and his friends to help us. They were the ones that brought us here, after all."

For fifteen seconds, his friends just looked at him. Then, Joey said, "Are you nuts? Don't get me wrong, Yugi. I think it's a good idea, but can we even trust them yet?"

"Well," Yugi said. He didn't want to tell him what he had felt near Naruto yet, so he had to come up with a good reason. Finally, he said, "I just have a good feeling that he's a good person, and I know we can at least trust him."

"Well, if he's fine with you, then he's all right with us!" his friends said.

"All right," Yugi said, happy that no questions were asked. "Now we just need to wait for them to get back."

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"What's the big idea, Sasuke?" Naruto yelled at him. "What's so important that we have to talk about it in private?"

"Shut up!" Sasuke quietly yelled at him. "We have to keep our voices down. We don't want them to hear us."

"Yeah, Naruto," Sakura joined in. "We still can't trust them yet. Not until we know more about them."

"What?!?" Naruto said with rage. "How can you not trust them? It's not like they want to kill us!"

Sakura thought for a moment about this. "Well, that's true," she finally said. "They don't look threatening in any way, and those two boys, Tristan and Joey, seem kind of clueless. . ."

"There's still something I don't trust about that one boy."

"Huh?" both Naruto and Sakura said. They were a bit baffled by Sasuke's words.

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked him.

Sasuke then said, "Did you not notice Yugi's pendant? There's something unnatural about that object. It has the same eye on it that Naruto used for the summoning, so it must have some significance. I can't really trust that boy until I know more about that object."

"You've got to be kidding me!" Naruto said angrily to him. "Out of the four of them, Yugi is the most trustworthy!"

"How do you know, Naruto? You've only met him recently," Sasuke said.

The blond was caught off guard, and he began to stumble with his words. Finally, he said, "Well, it's just that I have this feeling in my gut that Yugi's a good person."

He laughed a little nervously thinking, "I can't tell them about that strange feeling I had near him earlier. Then they'd be even more suspicious! Either that, or they'd think I'm weird."

After he saw Naruto's reaction, Sasuke thought about trying to find out why, but he decided to let it slide. Instead, he said, "No matter what we think about them, though, they're stuck with us now. What will we do about this?"

"But Sasuke," Naruto said, "didn't the jutsu book have a way to reverse this?"

Sakura then said, "You idiot! The page was missing, and it would take forever to find it! We should just ask Lady Tsunade if-"

"NO!" Naruto yelled. "If Granny Tsunade finds out what we did, we are so dead!"

"Correction: You'd be dead," Sasuke said with a smirk, knowing that he and Sakura would be able to get out of it unscathed.

"Whatever!" the blond said back. "If anyone at all finds out about this, we'll be in trouble!"

"Fine!" Sakura said sharply. "We won't tell anyone, but we still need to find a place for them to stay."

"Don't worry about that, Sakura!" Naruto said. "I got it all figured out! Tea can sleep at your house while Sasuke and I stay with the guys."

"And why am I being dragged into this?" Sasuke asked.

"Where will you guys stay, though?" Sakura asked, confused.

"Take it easy, guys," Naruto said, "I already know the perfect place. You guys know about the abandoned training building near the edge of town, right?"

"Yeah, but how do you know about it?" Sasuke asked. "Not much people would pay attention to it."

"Bushy Brow showed me one time, and it's because no one pays attention to it that it would make the perfect place! It has room for a lot of people, too!"

The two shinobi stared at him for a minute. Then, they agreed with him, seeing as they didn't have any better ideas.

"When did you get so smart, though?" Sakura asked.

". . . I feel hurt now," Naruto said.

"Let's just get the others now," Sasuke said.

When they got back to Yugi and his friends, they were talking amongst themselves.

"Well, guys, we know what we're going to do now!" Naruto announced. The four teenagers stared with curiousity. Then he continued and said, "We've decided that. . ." he pointed to Tea, ". . . you'll stay with Sakura while the guys will stay with me and Sasuke!"

"WHAT?!?" Joey yelled almost immediately. "There is absolutely no way that I'm staying with mini-Kaiba!"

They all stared at him while the ninjas thought, "What in the world is a kaiba?"

"Joey!" Tea yelled at him. "Let's just do as they say! We need as much help as we can get."

While those two kept arguing, Yugi went over to Naruto and said, "Thanks, but are you sure about this?"

"I'm positive!" the blond replied. "Besides, I don't want my new friends to get hurt."

Yugi grinned at him, and after a few more minutes, Joey was finally able to agree with the plan (with some persuasion from Tea and Sakura). Then they all left the forest.

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Two hours had passed, and it was dark and quiet in the halls of the bare training building. Naruto was walking down the hallway for a third time with food and a sleeping bag in his arms, and when he reached the door on his right that led to the room they were sleeping in, the Uchiha heir was waiting for him.

"It's about time you got here," he said with a smirk.

This worked in enraging Naruto, who quietly yelled, "Well, if you had gone with me, I would've gotten here faster!"

"Well, someone did have to make sure that nobody else came in here," he replied. Naruto knew he was right, so he just dropped the argument there.

When they entered, the three boys were already fast asleep in sleeping bags that Naruto got for them. Joey was mumbling in his sleep, Tristan was snoring, and Yugi just slept at ease.

As Naruto quietly put down all of his things, he asked quietly, "Hey Sasuke, do you think we'll be able to get them back home?"

After the Uchiha had locked the door to their room, he replied, "I don't know, but the sooner they leave the better. Now good night."

He then got into his sleeping bag to avoid further discussion.

". . . Good night," Naruto said in a barely audible voice. As soon as he was sure that Sasuke was asleep, he quietly took off his headband and jacket since it was a warm night.

"Man, so much happened today!" he thought to himself. "I tried out a new jutsu, made some new friends, and kept myself from being bored! I can't wait for tomorrow!"

As Naruto got into his sleeping bag, he looked over at Yugi's peaceful face, and he thought about what Sasuke had said earlier.

"_Did you not notice Yugi's pendant? There's something unnatural about that object. It has the same eye on it that Naruto used for the summoning, so it must have some significance. I can't really trust that boy until I know more about that object."_

". . . Hmph."

Naruto was annoyed by what he had said. He thought, "I still don't see what the big deal is! He looks trustworthy enough."

Then, his eyes came across the gold object. Then he wondered, "Although, I guess there is something odd about that thing. What is it supposed to be anyways?"

Naruto stayed up a little longer, wondering what kind of power the object could possibly have. Finally, after a half hour, he fell asleep.

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**Naruto: All right! That's it! I'm getting to the bottom of this right now!**

**Sasuke: What are you talking about, you loser?**

**Naruto: Come on! You know what I mean! The big mystery!**

**Sakura: I'm sorry, but I still can't follow you, Naruto.**

**Naruto: I'm talking about that golden object! There is something strange about it, and I'm gonna learn it's secrets if it's the last thing I do!**

* * *

**Well, I hope you enjoyed the chappie! It took me forever to type this, so please don't flame! Also, if you want to see my drawings, go to my fanfiction profile and click the link to my fanart-central profile. Peace out!**


	3. Revealing the Secrets

**Hello, everybody! This is the moment you've all been waiting for: the long-awaited update! I've had to go through so much to get this updated! First there was the writing, then the re-reading, then the typing, more re-reading, the dividers, and even these little author comments. I have a bad feeling that I'll be getting at least one flame for this chappie, though. I'm still nervous about if I typed this correctly, I might have made the chappie too long, and people might tell me that I've made character's too OOC. I just hope things will run more smoothly for me than they did last chappie. You may or may not have realized that last chappie didn't have the whole preview for this chappie. Well, that was because the computer was being mean to me! Well, before I bore you anymore, let's get on with the story!**

**Disclaimer: Come on, guys! The answer to this one is obvious!(For those who don't know the answer, it's no, I don't.)**

* * *

**Revealing the Secrets**

It was sunrise in the hidden leaf village. The birds were already whistling merrily, and the clouds were smeared across the bright blue sky.

It was at this time in the morning that Sakura and Tea were walking through the halls of the training building where the boys were staying. While they were walking, they quietly chatted about several different things.

"So you guys are ninjas?" Tea asked her new female friend. "That's amazing for how old you guys are!"

As they turned into a hallway on their right, the pink-haired girl replied, "It's not that impressive, actually. There are much more ninja out there that are younger than we are."

"Really? That's incredible!" the brunette exclaimed, clearly impressed when hearing this.

Soon, the two girls came to a stop. They had reached a door on their right that had a note with Japanese writing taped on it. When she saw this, Sakura took the note and began to read it.

"It looks like we can go in," Sakura said. "According to this note, Sasuke left the door unlocked for us."

"Oh, which one was Sasuke again?" Tea asked as they entered the room.

While they entered, the kunouchi replied, "Sasuke was the one your friend called, 'mini-Kaiba'."

". . . Oh," Tea uttered as she remembered the raven-haired boy from yesterday.

When they entered the room, the girls saw food packets scattered in the lower right corner of the room. There was a window on the left side of the far wall and a door to a storage closet on the left wall. Naruto, Joey, and Tristan were all sprawled across the middle of the floor with arms and legs spread out and mouths agape while Yugi was found sleeping peacefully near the window.

The two girls were disgusted at the sight of the three sprawled out boys and wondered how they became friends with these guys.

After staring for a few seconds, Sakura asked, "Well, how do we wake them up?"

"Hm . . ." Tea thought aloud. "I'm not sure. The only thing I know that might help us is that Joey will wake up at the slightest mention of food."

"That's perfect!" Sakura exclaimed. "Then I know just what type of food to use, then!"

After saying this, she bolted towards the food packets and searched for a certain thing. While she kept on saying, "Where is it? It has to be in here somewhere!" Tea quietly walked over to where her small friend slept. She slowly bent down and began to shake him gently, whispering, "Yugi, wake up. It's morning."

It took a few more seconds of shaking before he finally began to stir. Yugi slowly moved into a sitting position. Then, while he rubbed his eyes, he mumbled, "Mm . . . Morning, Tea."

As Tea looked at Yugi, she noticed that he looked like he hadn't gotten enough sleep the night before. Concerned for him, the brunette asked, "Yugi, are you all right? You don't look well rested."

He stopped rubbing his eyes for a moment and faced Tea. Then, he replied, "Don't worry, Tea. I'm fine, really. I just had a strange dream, that's all. I'm sure it's nothing."

". . . A dream?" Tea wondered. Before she could ask what kind of dream Yugi had, however, she heard Sakura shout from across the room, "I found it!"

The two teenagers looked over at the pink-haired girl, who was now holding a small plastic cup in her hands. She walked over to them and slightly opened the top. When they looked at what was inside the cup, they saw some noodles.

"Sakura, what's that?" Tea asked her.

"It's Naruto's favorite meal," she told them. "If we're lucky, this will wake all three of them up at once!"

"So, what type of food is it, Sakura?" Yugi asked.

Then, Sakura replied in a loud voice, "It's Ichiraku brand pork-flavored ramen."

After these words escaped the kunouchi's mouth, the three snoozers slowly got up while saying in small fragments. . .

"Ichiraku . . ?" (Naruto)

"Pork-flavored . . ?" (Joey)

"Ramen . . ?" (Tristan)

Then, as if by magic, all three of them jolted wide awake and ran to Sakura, shouting in unison, "GIMME, GIMME, GIMME!!!"

". . . Oh, geez," Sakura uttered out, seeing her mistake after noticing them stare after the small cup with deep, burning desire. She immediately got up and ran to the left side of the room with ramen cup in hand.

Tea sweatdropped as she watched this as she said, "I guess her plan worked a little too well. Right, Yugi?"

She got no reply from him, however, and she turned to face him. She saw that Yugi had a troubled look in his eyes that told her that he was thinking about something. She quietly thought to herself, "I wonder what's wrong."

"Tea, catch!"

Sakura threw the cup towards the two, and Tea stretched her arms out to catch the ramen cup. Then, seeing that the three maniacs were running towards her now, she ran over to the right side of the room.

"Sakura! Why did you get me involved in this?" the brunette asked as she tossed the ramen cup over the boys' heads and back over to her.

"I'm sorry! I can't handle three crazy guys running after me for a useless cup of noodles!" Sakura shouted back to her as she caught the cup with her right hand. As she passed the ramen back to Tea, she yelled, "I can't believe that you gave me the idea of using ramen to wake them up!"

When the brunette caught the cup, she answered, "Hey! I didn't tell you how to wake them up, did I?"

Tea tried to pass it back, but then Naruto jumped up in the air to try and catch it. His fingers brushed the bottom of the cup, causing it to change course and move toward the door.

It was at this moment that the door was opened by Sasuke. He opened the door and began saying, "Well, it looks like we have no missions to-"

He was interrupted, however, as the ramen cup hit his forehead and landed in his hand.

"What the . . . ?" He thought outloud, wondering why a ramen cup was thrown at his head.

"Oh no," Tea uttered, knowing what was going to happen.

"Sasuke! Watch out!" Sakura shouted, trying to warn him of the danger.

The young boy looked up to see Naruto, Joey, and Tristan all running towards him and shouting, "RAMEN!!!"

At first, Sasuke just blinked at them, sort of caught off guard at the sight before him. Then, he sighed and went back to his usual expression. He just calmly stood there as the three of them ran toward him, wanting the small cup of ramen that he now possessed. However, just before they reached him, the Uchiha just casually stepped out of the way.

Unable to react to this, Naruto, who was in the lead, went face first into the wall of the hallway. Shortly after, Joey ran into Naruto, and then Tristan collided into Joey. Finally, the three of them fell to the floor with dazed looks in their eyes.

Sakura, Tea, and Yugi stared at them, shocked at how they were stopped with Sasuke doing barely anything. Meanwhile, the raven-haired boy glared at them for a minute or two. After doing so, he turned away and entered the room while uttering, "Losers."

The three boys lying on the floor growled with anger at Sasuke, furious with how he made them look bad.

Ignoring the scene that had just happened, Sakura asked her crush, "So, where have you been all this time, Sasuke?"

"Unlike you, I've been busy," he replied while dropping a bag full of different colored books in the middle of the floor.

"What are those?" Tea asked him, also wondering what he had been doing.

Turning to her, Sasuke answered, "They're jutsu study books. Like I tried saying earlier, we don't have any ninja missions today, so we need to spend as much time as possible to try to find a way to get you people back to where you came from."

"HEY! We have names, you know!" Joey yelled after recovering from his collision in the hallway.

Sasuke just ignored the blonde and dug around for a book. This caused Joey to get even angrier and yell, "Hey! I'm talking to you, jerk! Don't you dare ignore me!"

After finding an evergreen book, Sasuke finally turned to face the blond teenager. He gave him a cold stare and said, "Do you ever shut up? I swear, sometimes, you're even more of an idiot than Naruto."

"HEY!" the two blonds shouted in unison, furious at that last statement. They both began to crack their knuckles and walked into the room, but before they could even attempt to attack Sasuke, Sakura got in front of the two and said with a demanding tone in her voice, "Don't. You. Even. Dare!"

This caused the two boys to think for a moment. After remembering how violent the pink-haired kunouchi could be, they immediately forgot of their previous plans and sat down without any argument whatsoever.

After everyone got into the room and ate a small breakfast, Sakura took a deep breath and said, "Okay. Let's get started." And with that, they began to search for a solution to their problem.

**LongChappieLongChappieLongChappieLongChappieLongChappie**

Tsunade sat at her desk in the Hokage's office, tapping her fingers on the wood. She was clearly troubled by something.

While the blond woman continued doing this, Shizune walked into the office happily. When she saw the troubled look on her friend's face, however, she asked, "Lady Tsunade, what's wrong?"

The legendary sannin looked up and said, "Oh, Shizune, today's just not my day. This whole morning has put me in a sour mood! I missed having my cup of coffee, I've had a headache for the past ten minutes now, and, to make things worse, I still have all of this paperwork to do!"

After hearing Tsunade's complaint about the paperwork, Shizune laughed nervously and said, "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I can't help you with that."

As her assistant said this, Tsunade thought to herself, "There's something else that's troubling me . . ."

_It was about five in the morning, and the sun wasn't even up yet. Tsunade sat at her desk, half-asleep as she organized the many files scattered around her office._

"_I really need to think about getting Shizune to clean this place up," she mumbled as she began carrying a huge stack of papers to her filing cabinets._

_Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Startled, the Hokage jumped a little, causing her to drop the stack of papers and spread them all over the floor. She groaned at the thought of having to pick them up later and slowly walked over to the doors while thinking, "Who would come here at this time in the morning?"_

_As she opened the door, she saw Sasuke, standing there with his usual dead serious face._

"_Geez, does this kid ever sleep?" Tsunade wondered while staring at him with a blank face. Then, she asked, "What do you want?"_

"_Has Kakashi returned yet?" Sasuke asked, making sure that his voice was loud enough for her to hear him._

_She stood there for a moment, trying to focus on what he said. After a moment to think, the tired sannin replied, "Oh, no, he hasn't, so tell Naruto that he'll have to deal with it."_

_As she turned around to walk back to her desk and yawned, she heard the young boy say, "So, you're saying we don't have any missions today?"_

"_Not until Kakashi comes back," she said as she sat at her desk. She yawned once more, and then, as she turned to face Sasuke, she continued, "So, you guys need to occupy yourselves like you did yesterday, and I don't want to hear any complaints. Got it?"_

_However, when she opened her eyes, the Hokage noticed that Sasuke had already left. She was left staring at the place where he used to be. Then, she went back to her normal morning schedule._

"Normally, none of them, not even Sasuke, come that early for missions," Tsunade still wondered. "and I thought for sure that I'd get at least one groan. They're up to something, but what?"

Seeing that her assistant was still there, she asked, "What is it, Shizune?"

Remembering what had sent her up to the Hokage's office in the first place, Shizune replied, "Well, I just came up here to tell you that Kakashi has completed his mission and that he'll be back in about 20 minutes, but since I've been up here, at least 10 minutes should have passed."

"Oh, good!" Tsunade replied. "I think as soon as he gets back, I may need him to find something out for me."

As Shizune stared, wondering what her friend had in mind, a Jounin with brown hair and brown eyes came in before any other comments could be made. He said in a deep voice, "Lady Hokage, we have a problem!"

"What is it?" she asked half-paying attention to what he was saying.

"A pair of rogue ninja has somehow sneaked into the leaf village!" he shouted.

"What?!?" Tsunade replied now paying full attention to what he was saying.

He continued to say, "Our guards have been knocked out for the past hour. One of them managed to recover and give out the message. I came as soon as we learned this."

"Well, don't just stand there! Send someone to get rid of them!" The blonde woman ordered.

"Wait, Lady Hokage! There's something else you have to know!" the young man said. "We learned the identity of one of the ninjas."

"Well, who is it?!?" Tsunade asked in an angry tone in her voice.

"Well, it's . . . um. . ." he uttered. Then, he went up to her and whispered something in her ear.

As soon as she heard the name, Tsunade froze with a face showing shock and fear. She thought, "Seriously? He came to the village? That can only mean one thing!"

"Lady Tsunade, what's wrong?" Shizune asked when she saw the look of worry on her friend's face.

Immediately, the Hokage demanded, "Get as many of our ANBU officers as you can to find them! Shizune, as soon as Kakashi gets here, send him to my office! I have a very important job for him!"

"Yes, Lady Tsunade!" they both replied, and they were gone in a flash.

As they left, Tsunade thought, "They had better catch them before those rogue ninja find what they came here for!"

**LongChappieLongChappieLongChappieLongChappieLongChappie**

It was now eleven in the morning. After eating their breakfast, the three shinobi and the four teenagers had began to look for something that could help them undo what had happened the day before. However, after 10 minutes, Naruto, Joey, and Tristan had gotten bored and quit to talk with each other.

While Joey and Tristan told Naruto of some of their adventures in Battle City, Tea, Sakura, Sasuke, and Yugi were still trying to look for a jutsu that could help them.

As Sakura turned the page in her blue jutsu book that she held in her hands, she heard Tea suddenly ask, "Why did you summon people from our world?"

"What do you mean?" the pink-haired girl asked her.

As Tea placed her black jutsu book in her lap, she answered, "Well, there are probably more worlds out there. You could have picked any universe, but instead, you summoned us. Why did you choose our world?"

Without even looking up from his red jutsu book, Sasuke said, "You can thank Naruto for that. When he read the description of your world, he saw the word 'shadow' and instantly thought that you would be stronger than you really are."

"Shadow?" Tea repeated quietly to herself. Suddenly, she realized why that word would be used to describe their universe and told them, "That book must have been referring to the shadow games."

"Shadow games?" Sakura asked. "What are those?"

"Well," the brunette began to explain. "The shadow games are special duels in our world that are really dangerous. Several times, it was because of a shadow game that we almost lost our lives."

"Whoa," Sakura uttered, clearly amazed at this information. "So, is it difficult to always be put in danger like that?"

"Actually, most of the time, we're not in danger," Yugi told her after turning the page of his deep purple jutsu book.

"Really? How?" the pink-haired kunouchi asked him.

He placed his book down and replied, "You see, shadow games can only happen if one of the duelists possess a millennium item."

After hearing this, Sasuke finally decided to be interested and pay attention to the conversation. Meanwhile, Sakura asked, "What's a millennium item?"

Yugi thought about what to say, and when he decided that it was okay to talk a little bit about the millennium items, he told Sakura, "Well, a millennium item is an extremely rare object in our world. There are only seven, and each item is said to have strange and magical powers."

"Hm . . ." Sasuke wondered. As soon as his eyes came across the golden object around Yugi's neck, he asked, "That thing wouldn't happen to be one of those items, would it?"

Yugi looked over at the raven-haired boy and was acknowledged by a cold stare. He wasn't sure why, but something about Sasuke made him feel uneasy. He calmly answered, "Actually, this is a millennium item. It's called the Millennium Puzzle, and it's probably my most prized possession that I own."

"So what powers does that item of yours have?" Sasuke asked almost immediately after receiving his answer.

Yugi stared at him, wondering why Sasuke was so curious. Meanwhile, Tea worried and thought, "What should we do? We can't let Sasuke, or anyone for that matter, learn about the powers of Yugi's puzzle!"

"Sasuke, why are you asking Yugi so many questions?" Sakura asked her crush.

Tea joined in by asking, "Yeah, Sasuke. Why are so curious about Yugi's puzzle, anyways?"

The young Uchiha boy glared at the two girls and was about to tell them to mind their own business, but all of a sudden . . .

". . . when all of a sudden, SPLOOSH!!!"

The two girls jumped at the yell, and the two boys stared in shock, wondering what the heck the other three guys were doing.

After taking a breath, Tea turned around and yelled angrily, "Dang it, Joey! Could you keep it down over there?!?"

"Yeah!" Sakura added in the shouting. "Unlike you, we're busy, so keep your mouth shut!"

"I was just getting to the best part, though!" Joey whined.

Tristan added, "Just let him finish this story!"

"Yeah! Let him finish!" Naruto yelled, wanting to hear the end of the story.

"What story could you possibly be telling that could cause this much noise?" Sakura asked, annoyed by the boys' whining.

"A very dangerous one!" Naruto yelled back. "These guys are telling me about this freaky duel that this freak, Marik, forced them to do, and how they almost got killed!"

Sakura quickly went out of her anger and became interested. She asked, "Oh, was it a shadow game?"

The blonde ninja just gave her a blank stare. He hadn't learned what a shadow game was yet, so he just sat there and thought about what it was. Meanwhile, Joey answered, "Actually, it wasn't, but it did put our lives in danger."

"Which duel was this again, Joey?" Tea asked, trying to remember all of the duels that took place in Battle City.

"You don't remember?" the blonde teenager asked his female friend. "It was that duel near the dock where I was brainwashed and . . . well, you know . . ."

"Oh, that duel?" the brunette asked, remembering that duel and wondering why her friend wanted to tell Naruto about that one moment. Meanwhile, Yugi had a thoughtful stare on his face as he remembered that hectic day while Tea continued saying, "I'm surprised you're okay with talking about that duel now, Joey."

"Aw, c'mon, Tea," Joey said. "Why wouldn't I want to talk about it? That was one of the shining moments in my life, if I remember correctly."

In response to this statement, Tristan said, "That's funny. If I remember correctly, you were pretty ashamed of yourself for that duel in Battle City."

"That's different!" Joey yelled at him. "Back then, it was more recent, and the world wasn't endangered by that maniac!"

"Hn, loser."

"What did you say?!?" Joey yelled as he glared at Sasuke.

"I said you're a loser," the raven-haired boy replied, making sure to stretch out the last word to purposely irritate Joey. "Seriously, you speak without thinking, like Naruto."

"Hey! I heard that!" the blonde ninja yelled at him.

"Yeah!" Joey yelled. "We don't need to hear that load of garbage coming from you, mini-Kaiba, so why don't you mind your own business?"

Sasuke just gave them a 'you're a moron' stare and went back to his search. After a brief moment of thought, Naruto asked, "Um, Joey, what's a Kaiba?"

"Huh?" Joey at first didn't hear his question. As soon as he was able to pay attention, however, he replied, "Oh! Actually, Kaiba isn't an 'it'. He's actually a person. If you ask me, though, he's a heartless jerk who just goes out of his way to make me look bad! I HATE THAT BIG, FAT SON OF A-"

"Oh, be quiet, already!" Sakura yelled as she hit him in the head with a fist. He fell to the floor seeing stars, and the pink-haired kunouchi said, "Honestly, you're giving me a headache!" Then, she turned to Tea and asked, "So, who exactly is Kaiba?"

Tea replied, "Well, his actual name is Seto Kaiba, and he's the head of a major company in our world."

"He's also the second best at duel monsters!" Tristan added after getting Joey out of his concussion.

"Second best?" Sasuke asked while raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah! And you act a lot like him, mini-Kaiba! You even have that same, emotionless, 'you're all morons' stare that he's got, and I don't like that about you!" Joey yelled while pointing his finger at the raven-haired shinobi.

While Sakura stared angrily at Joey, she thought, "If he bad mouths about Sasuke one more time, I swear I'm going to pulverize him!"

Suddenly, she thought about something and asked, "Hey, wait a minute. So if Kaiba is second best, then who's the one person that beat him?"

"Come on, Sakura! Didn't you hear Joey yesterday?" Naruto asked her, surprised that she didn't remember. He then continued saying, "He said that he was the greatest duelist, and it's probably true! I mean, he's pretty cool, and he-"

"Naruto," Sasuke interrupted. As the blond ninja stared at him, he said, "Do you honestly believe that this pathetic excuse for a duelist could ever be the best in anything?"

"What?!?" Naruto asked angrily. "You jerk!"

Before he could think of anything else to say, however, Joey said with regret, "Unfortunately, he's right, or at least he is about the fact that I'm not the best."

Naruto looked at him with confusion and asked, "But, if you're not the best, then who is?"

Joey replied, "Well, actually, Yug is the best! He's the only person to ever beat Kaiba!"

". . . Really?" Sakura asked.

All three of the shinobi looked over at Yugi, who now felt pretty awkward from the sudden attention that he was getting. The only response he had was a shrug.

After a few seconds had passed, Sakura said with wonder in her voice, "Wow, and you guys think it's impressive that we're ninjas at our age?"

". . . What do you mean?" Yugi asked, being caught off guard by this statement.

"Well," Sakura began, "This 'duel monsters' game sounds pretty challenging . . ."

Then, Naruto finished, ". . . but you're already number one! It's pretty cool for how young you are!"

". . . . . . . Pardon?" Yugi asked nervously, knowing what was coming.

"Aren't you 13 like us?" Sakura asked.

"Um, not exactly," the tri-colored haired boy answered.

"Oh," Sakura said, a little bit startled. "Then, are you 12?"

". . . No," he said quietly. Meanwhile, Joey and Tristan were holding back laughter, clearly amused by this.

"Okay, then are you a short 14-year old guy?" Naruto asked as he was beginning to lose his patience. After seeing Yugi shake his head, the blond ninja shouted, "I don't get it! How old are you, then?"

He looked over at the other two teenage boys who were still holding back laughter, and Naruto asked, "And what's so funny?"

Hearing this question, the two boys quickly calmed down and tried to keep straight faces. Then, Tristan said, "Man, you guys don't get it, do you?"

"What do you mean by that?" Sakura asked, also wondering why they were laughing. She looked over to Tea expecting an answer. The brunette looked over at Yugi as if she was silently asking for permission. Her friend took a deep sigh and nodded, and she turned to Sakura and Naruto.

Then, she quietly told them, "Well, as unbelievable as it sounds, Yugi is actually 16, like the rest of us."

"Actually, I'm 17, Tea," Joey stated, wanting to get the facts straight.

"Whatever!" Tea stated, showing that she didn't care.

A long and awkward silence followed when Sakura and Naruto heard about Yugi's actual age. Naruto just stared with his mouth agape, and Sakura tried to think if she heard that sentence correctly. After a moment, she nervously said, "Well, that's . . . interesting."

"Weird," Tristan said. "I thought for sure that Naruto would have been more surprised."

"Yeah, me too," Joey added.

Sasuke just stared at them and thought, "Knowing Naruto, he's probably still stunned. He'll probably start shouting with shock in 3, 2, 1 . . ."

"WHHHAAAAAAAT?!?"

Everyone in the room except Sasuke jumped at Naruto's sudden shout. Meanwhile, Sasuke thought to himself, "I knew it. That loser is so predictable it's embarrassing."

He continued to smirk to himself until he felt a dark presence. He turned to the window, but no one was there. He quietly thought, "Something's not right. Who was that?"

Meanwhile, Naruto continued shouting, "How the heck can he be 16?!? He's so SHORT!!! That's insane!!"

"Naruto, cut it out!" Sakura scolded. "You know, you're pretty short for your age."

"Yeah, but at least I'm no dwarf!" the blond shinobi yelled back.

Sakura just yelled at him, "Stop being so inconsiderate, Naruto!"

Meanwhile, Inner Sakura thought, "Hahahahahahaha!!!Oh, my gosh! This kid brings a whole new meaning to the word, 'short'! This is hilarious!"

"Apologize to him, NOW!" Sakura threatened, now having completely lost her temper.

Naruto cowered in the corner with fear. Before Sakura began to beat him to a bloody pulp, however, Yugi calmly told them, "It's all right, Sakura. Calm down. He doesn't have to apologize if he doesn't want to. Besides, I've been called short and worse before."

"Are you sure?" the pink-haired kunouchi asked him. He nodded, and then, she sat wishing that she could've done something to help him.

As soon as everything was calm again, Joey got back to telling his story with Sakura now listening, too. While he did this, Sasuke was still staring at the window, wondering, "We need to find out who was watching us just now. It felt like an evil presence was here just a few moments ago. That has to mean that either another sound attack is about to happen or . . ."

While he continued his thoughts, Joey's story was coming to a close. In the middle of his story, Sakura had asked, "So, wait a minute. Then, how did you save yourself if you didn't have your key?"

"I didn't," the blond teenager simply stated. "My little sister, Serenity, jumped in and saved me."

"You have a little sister?" Naruto asked. "What's she like?"

"Oh, Serenity is the sweetest girl you could ever meet," Joey said with pride. "She's around your age, actually. In fact, I know I have a picture of her here somewhere."

After saying this, he began searching through his pockets. As Sakura and Naruto stared at him, Joey pulled out his wallet and flipped it open.

"Well, here she is!" he said, showing them a picture of girl with long, orange hair and light brown eyes. She wore a pink vest with a high collar and a short-sleeve yellow T-shirt underneath that.

"Wow, she looks cute!" Naruto said excitedly.

"Yeah, she is," Tristan said with a dreamy look on his face. "If only I could see her. Then, I'd-"

"Hey! Back off, Tristan!" Joey yelled angrily while putting him in a headlock.

"Well, I see he's a bit overprotective of her," Sakura thought as she saw the two boys fight. Meanwhile, Naruto thought, "Whoa, I wonder if he'd do that to me if I wanted to date his sister."

Before he had a chance to ask, though, he heard Sasuke tell him, "Naruto, we should look for Kakashi now."

As everyone stopped what they were doing, Sakura asked, "Wait. Do you really think that Kakashi-sensei came back from his mission already?"

While Sakura asked this, Tristan whispered to Naruto, "Hey, who is this 'Kakashi' guy?"

"Oh, he's just our weird teacher," Naruto replied, not really wanting to go into detail about how weird he was.

"I'm not sure," Sasuke continued. "but I think Naruto and I should make sure that he doesn't stumble across these guys."

"What? No way! I'm staying right here!" Naruto argued, and he sat and stared defiantly at the young Uchiha while crossing his arms.

"Look, you loser," Sasuke said, raising his voice slightly in annoyance. "We can't afford to let anyone discover the people that you summoned, and Kakashi could be back anytime now. If you want to keep them hidden, we'll have to keep him busy, so we're going to find him."

"Why can't you just have Sakura go with you, then?" Naruto countered back.

"And leave you here so that our friends get headaches? No way!" Sakura said sternly. "You wouldn't even be able to keep things under control!"

"I could too!" Naruto whined. "What makes you think that I wouldn't keep things quiet, here?"

"How about the fact that you're never quiet?" Tea argued with him while taking Sakura's side.

This left Naruto speechless, now that he had two girls arguing against him. He stuttered with his words, trying to think of a witty comeback. When he failed to say anything after two minutes, Sasuke said, "Well, since you've made yourself look like a complete moron, again, can we go now?"

As Naruto growled at him angrily, Joey yelled, "Hey! Watch what you say, or Naruto may have to knock your teeth out! Anyways, can't you get one of Naruto's other friends to find this Kakashi guy for you?"

When Naruto heard the blond teenager's last question, he snapped out of his rage and became quiet. Meanwhile, the raven-haired boy stared coldly at Joey and said, "No, I can't, Wheeler. Kakashi is only our teacher, so I don't think it would be any of their business."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Joey asked, getting really enraged by Sasuke.

Before getting an answer, though, they heard the blond shinobi say, "Also, I don't really have a whole lot of really good friends."

". . . Huh?" Joey uttered, barely hearing what he said.

"Well, actually. . ." Naruto continued in a much more mellow voice. "Before I became a ninja, I didn't really have any friends."

"WHA . . .?" Joey, Tristan, and Tea yelled in shock. Meanwhile, Sakura stared in confusion, Sasuke looked away without showing any emotion whatsoever, and Yugi stared at Naruto with a curious and questioning look in his deep amethyst eyes.

"Are you serious?!?" Tristan asked him, barely believing what he had just heard.

"There's no way that a cool guy like you didn't have any friends!" Joey said, also shocked at the shinobi's last statement.

"Is that the truth, Naruto?" Tea asked him.

"Yeah," Naruto mumbled, avoiding eye contact and staring at the wooden floor. "I don't like talking about it that much, so let's just forget I ever mentioned it."

". . . That can't be true."

Everyone stared at the small teenager, who was now looking at Naruto that expressed hope and disbelief. The blond ninja blinked in confusion and asked, "What do you mean, Yugi?"

"Are you sure that you didn't have a single friend when you were a kid?" Yugi asked him. "You couldn't have been all alone."

"I already told you, I didn't," Naruto said. "There were only a few people that I hung out with, but they were more like . . . associates."

As he was saying his last word, Naruto felt a sharp pain in his forehead and began to grip it.

"Are you okay, Naruto?" Sakura asked when she saw him do this.

"Oh, yeah," Naruto mumbled. He grunted from the pain, and then continued, "I'm just getting a headache, that's all. I'm just thinking too much."

"Why is this happening again?" the blond shinobi thought to himself. "Yugi says one little thing, and I get this splitting headache! What's next??"

Suddenly, an unfamiliar picture flashed into his mind.

_It was a sunny day in the forest. A large, oak tree stood out, and in front of it, there were two boys running and holding hands. They both seemed to be friends. One wore a black T-shirt and grey shorts. The second boy wore an orange T-shirt, blue shorts, and an orange baseball cap turned backwards. They were both laughing happily._

Naruto's face became filled with shock and disbelief as he gasped. He thought, "Whoa! What the heck was that?!?"

"Naruto?" Sakura asked with worry when she saw her teammate's face. "Naruto, what's the matter?"

"Yeah. You look like you've seen a ghost!" Joey added, concerned about his new friend.

Naruto immediately took his hand away from his head and began to panic in his mind, not wanting his friends to learn about what he saw. He nervously said, "Oh, uh, nothing! Nothing whatsoever! Everything is a okay! Now, I gotta, uh . . . go, uh . . . . . . . . go freshen up!"

He dashed over to the closet, stepped inside, and slammed the door behind him, leaving everybody confused. While everyone blinked in confusion, Sasuke stared suspiciously at where Naruto had retreated.

"Uh, what just happened?" Tristan asked to no one in particular.

Tea replied, "I honestly have no idea."

Meanwhile, the Uchiha male thought, "He's been acting very strange ever since yesterday. . ."

"_You've got to be kidding me!" Naruto said angrily to him. "Out of the four of them, Yugi is the most trustworthy!"_

"_How do you know, Naruto? You've only met him recently," Sasuke said._

_The blond was caught off guard, and he began to stumble with his words. Finally, he said, "Well, it's just that I have this feeling in my gut that Yugi's a good person."_

_The blond, hyperactive ninja laughed nervously after he said this._

Still glaring, Sasuke thought, "Yesterday, I didn't think that was a big deal, but now I'm suspicious. I'm going in there and seeing what's wrong with him."

Before Sasuke could make a move, however, he stared at Yugi as he got up and began walking to the closet. Tea asked, "Yugi, what are you doing?"

The tri-colored haired teen paused right in front of the door to the closet. He turned to his friends and answered, "I'm just going to check on Naruto. Just to make sure he's all right."

"Oh, okay," Sakura said, surprised that he came to that decision so suddenly.

"Besides, I need to tell him about that dream I had," Yugi thought. "I have a strange feeling that Naruto's actions have something to do with it, and I need to know what happened to him!"

Yugi slowly opened the door, stepped inside, and quietly shut the door behind him.

"Well, now what do we do?" Tristan asked now that things with the blond shinobi were being taken care of.

Sakura then asked, "Well, could one of you guys please explain this 'duel monsters' game? I still don't understand it."

Hearing this, Joey said, "Oh, sure. No problem, Sakura." While he began looking for his deck to better explain the rules, he shouted over to Sasuke, "Hey, mini-Kaiba! You better get over here if you want to see something interesting!"

Sasuke reluctantly moved over to where they were all sitting while he was thinking, "I guess I shouldn't worry about that idiot right now. The biggest mystery that I should be focusing on right now is Yugi's puzzle. Maybe Naruto can actually find some answers for me."

**LongChappieLongChappieLongChappieLongChappieLongChappie**

Naruto stood alone in the closet, still trying to wonder what had happened a few moments ago. The closet which he stood in had kunais and scrolls stacked and scattered all over the room. The only light came from a small light bulb hanging from the ceiling.

"What did I see just now?" he thought, still in shock. "Who were those kids? Man, I feel confused."

"Naruto?"

"Ah!" the blond ninja shouted in shock. As he spun around, he saw Yugi standing in front of him. Then, he calmed down and said, "Oh, hey Yugi. You kinda scared me there."

"Oh, sorry," the small boy apologized.

"Oh, don't be," Naruto said. "It's my fault. I should have been more prepared." He sat down on the floor and asked, "So, what do you want?"

"Oh, well," Yugi began to reply as he tried to find a clear place to sit. "Everyone was worried about your strange behavior. Is something wrong?"

The blond ninja stared for a moment, lost in thought. Then, he thought to himself, "I guess I should tell at least someone about this. I mean, Yugi does seem pretty trustworthy. Plus, I can't shake this feeling I have that he had something to do with my vision."

After Yugi finally found a comfortable place to sit in front of him, Naruto said, "Okay, this may sound crazy, but I think I had a vision or something."

"What kind of vision?" Yugi asked, not wondering what he meant by a vision.

Naruto replied, "It was a pretty weird one. It wasn't exactly clear. I just saw for a brief moment these two boys running and laughing through this forest. I honestly have no idea what it means."

Suddenly, a thought came across Yugi's mind. He quickly asked his blond friend, "Wait a minute. Naruto, what did the two boys look like?"

"Well, I'm not sure," Naruto began. "The vision was a little fuzzy, so I could only notice what type of clothes they had. One wore a black shirt, and the other one had an orange shirt and an orange hat. Why do you ask?"

Yugi gasped in shock, and with out thinking, he said, "No way!"

"'No way' what?" Naruto asked, confused by his reaction.

"Yugi, what's wrong?" Yami asked through their minds, also confused.

"Your vision!" the short boy exclaimed in disbelief.

"What about it?" the blond shinobi asked him.

Yugi replied, "It sounds exactly like the dream that I had last night!"

Yami was shocked to hear this and thought, "How is that possible?"

"No way! You've got to be kidding!" Naruto said in complete shock.

"I wish I were," Yugi replied quietly. "I'm worried about this. I remember having this dream about six years ago. What do you think this means?"

"Don't ask me!" Naruto quietly shouted. "I'm just as confused about this as you are, if not more. Man, I just wish I knew why this is happening to us!"

After a moment of thought, Yugi suggested, "Maybe it has to do with how you performed the summoning jutsu."

"Hm. . . Maybe," Naruto said quietly as he rested his chin in his hand. "I remember that I had tried to summon five people yesterday, but instead, I was only able to summon four. I followed all the rules, but in the end, I couldn't summon all five spir-"

Naruto suddenly stopped talking. He had suddenly remembered what the book had said . . .

_Step 2: Make sure that your blood is placed on as many fingers as you want spirits._

The word 'spirits' echoed in Naruto's head. Realizing what the book meant by that, he uttered in a barely audible voice, "That's it. That's it!"

"Naruto?" Yugi asked, wondering what the blond shinobi was thinking about.

"Yugi, don't you see?" Naruto asked, happiness and excitement filling his voice. "The reason why we only found you and your friends is because that jutsu book said that you summon spirits! I did summon the fifth person after all! He's probably just sharing a body with one of you guys!"

Yugi just froze and stared at him with shock while Naruto happily thought, "Man, I can't wait until I find out where that fifth spirit is hiding! Now, who could that spirit be with?"

"Oh, no!" Yugi thought to the friend sharing his body. "What if he finds out about the secrets of the puzzle?"

"Yugi, I wouldn't worry yet," Yami calmly told him. "He hasn't asked about it, yet, so we're all right for now."

Naruto quickly looked at Yugi. When his eyes spotted the golden object, the blond, hyperactive ninja asked, "Hey, Yugi! That puzzle, is that where the fifth spirit is?"

Both Yugi and Yami couldn't believe what they had just heard! Naruto was just one step away from discovering their secret!

Yugi hid his shock and worry from Naruto and replied calmly, "Now, why would you think that, Naruto? I mean, it sounds a little bit crazy, doesn't it? I don't think anyone has ever heard of two spirits living in the same body."

". . . Actually," Naruto said bringing his voice down. "To me, it sounds perfectly normal for two spirits to inhabit the same body."

"What?" Yugi wondered out loud.

The blond boy sat in silence, wondering whether or not to tell him of his deepest, darkest secret. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity to Naruto, he said quietly, "You know, this will be the first time I've ever told someone about this. Most people don't know about it, not even Sakura and Sasuke. I'm . . . not sure how to say it, so I'll just show you."

He began to take off his jacket, and Yugi wondered what Naruto was going to do as he stared at him. As the blond ninja threw his jacket and began to take off his shirt, Yugi asked, "Naruto, what are you doing?"

"Just watch," Naruto simply told him. Then, he formed a hand sign and began to mold his chakra.

At first, Yugi saw nothing and was left in confusion, but after a few more seconds, his eyes went wide with shock as he saw strange, black marks appear on Naruto's stomach. While Yugi reached out his hand and touched the strange markings, he asked, "What is this? A strange tattoo?"

"No, but I wish it were, though," Naruto told him.

When the tri-colored haired boy gave him a questioning look, the blond ninja began to put his clothes back on while he explained, "I don't really know most of the details, but apparently, thirteen years ago, our village was being attacked by a demon called the nine-tailed fox. According to Iruka-sensei, though, the fourth Hokage saved the village by trapping that stupid fox inside a human vessel, and . . . well, I'm guessing you can figure out the rest. Those black markings I showed you, that was a seal. It's supposed to contain the demon within me."

After his story, there was a long and unnerving silence. Yugi just had a shocked expression on his face. As he saw his face, Naruto thought, "Oh, man! Telling him about that stupid fox was a bad idea, wasn't it? I should have known better than to just spill my guts to him like that! He'll probably laugh at me, or worse, start hating me!"

"Whoa, I never would have guessed."

Naruto looked at Yugi, startled by what he had said. The small teenager now showed sympathy and kindness, and he continued saying, "It must be difficult for you to carry such a burden. Why don't you tell your friends about this?"

"I can't tell them," Naruto said. "If they knew that I had a demon inside of me, what would they think? I don't want to risk losing the friends that took me so long to get!"

Yugi stared at him sympathetically and thought, "I feel bad for him, Yami. Having to keep such a big secret must be very difficult for someone his age."

"That's true," Yami replied. "He seems to have been through many hardships, but that doesn't mean he should know about me."

"So," Naruto continued saying. "If there's a demon inside of that puzzle, I understand."

Yugi's body tensed slightly. Even if Yami didn't know about his past, Yugi knew for sure that he was no demon.

"I mean, it's not your fault that you have an evil spirit inside of that object of yours," the blond ninja added, assuming both that there was another spirit within Yugi and that the spirit was evil like the nine-tailed fox.

When he saw Yugi put his hands into fists on his lap, Yami cautioned, "Yugi, you have to calm down. You must remember that he doesn't know anything about the Millennium Puzzle."

"I know," Yugi thought back. "That's what's making me so furious! He can't just assume things!"

Before Yugi could have a chance to calm down, Naruto said to himself, "That demon must have destroyed millions of lives, no doubt."

"He's NOT a demon!"

"Huh?" Naruto asked, confused at Yugi's sudden temper.

The tri-colored haired boy continued saying angrily, "Yami is NOT an evil spirit! The only reason we're not completely sure is because he lost his memories from five thousand years ago, but when he gets them back, we'll know he was a good pharaoh the whole time! He is NOT EVIL!!!"

". . ."

Naruto just blinked in confusion while trying to process all of the information. Yugi, realizing what he had just revealed, gasped and covered his mouth, wishing that he hadn't said any of that.

"Yugi!" Yami shouted, shocked at what his friend had just done.

"Oh, no!" Yugi thought with dread. "I can't believe I let that slip out!"

Naruto's head was now filled with many questions. He quietly uttered, "Five thousand years? . . . Is that even possible? . . . What in the name of Ichiraku Ramen is a pharaoh supposed to be anyways?"

After uttering this, he looked at Yugi with extreme confusion in his face and asked, "Yugi, what's a pharaoh?"

Yugi just stared at him blankly. After realizing that Naruto hadn't clearly understood everything that he had just said, he got up immediately and made a swift move to open the door.

"Yugi?" the blond boy asked, wondering what was wrong and what his short friend was doing.

Meanwhile, Yugi was frantically thinking, "We have to get out of here before somebody else finds out about the puzzle!"

**LongChappieLongChappieLongChappieLongChappieLongChappie**

While Yugi and Naruto had been in the storage closet, Joey was busy telling Sakura and Sasuke all the rules of duel monsters. Apparently, they hadn't heard a word that their two friends were saying in the closet (luckily for them, the doors made it so nothing could be heard) and Joey had just said, ". . . and that's how you do a fusion summon!"

"Wow, this game sounds so complex!" Sakura said as she tried to remember everything that was being explained to her. Meanwhile, her crush looked as if he could care less about their games.

Right before the blond teenager could continue his explanation of the game, the door to the closet swung wide open, and Yugi rushed out quickly.

"Hey, Yug," Joey greeted, being in a much better mood than before. "Can you help me explain ritual summoning to these guys?"

The tri-colored haired boy just walked quickly past him and gathered the few things that he and his friends had with them. Confused, Joey asked, "Yugi, what's the matter, pal?"

Without even looking up from his task, Yugi replied quietly, "We have to go."

"What?!?" Everyone replied in shock except for Sasuke, who just stared at him and wondered why he was acting like this.

"Leave?" Tea asked her friend. "But why?"

The short boy still ignored them and sped toward the exit. Sakura yelled, "Yugi! Why won't you answer her?"

Without even acknowledging either of the two girls, Yugi began to turn the doorknob. Before he could open the door, however, Naruto ran out of the closet and asked, "What are you doing?"

Yugi quickly paused. Then, he turned to face him and said, "I'm sorry, Naruto, but my friends and I have to leave before anybody else finds out."

The blond shinobi just yelled back, "Could you at least explain to me what the heck ha-"

Suddenly, Naruto stopped in the middle of his question and stared with fear in his eyes. Through the crack of the door, he could see robes of black and red, and there were only two people he knew that wore this type of outfit.

Quietly, he whispered, "Yugi, don't go out there."

"I have to," the small boy answered. "If the wrong people find out my secret, my friends and I, and even you guys, could be in great danger."

"Don't you get it?!?" Naruto yelled with frustration and fear in his voice. "You'll be in danger if you go out there!"

As the blond ninja said this, Sasuke felt the same dark presence that he felt earlier that day. At that moment, he understood why Naruto was panicking; he was here. Quickly, the Uchiha boy yelled, "Yugi, listen to him for once!"

While the other people in the room stared at Sasuke, wondering why they were persisting so much for them to stay in there, Yugi just said, "I'm sorry, but we have to go."

He opened the door, but as he exited, he bumped into a man who was standing in the hallway. This stranger had blue hair and blue skin. He also wore black robes with red clouds decorating it.

"Oh, excuse me, sir," Yugi said without looking up, and he continued to walk.

As Sasuke stared in shock at what was about to happen, Naruto shouted, "Yugi! Watch out!"

Confused, Yugi looked up. Before he could react, however, he suddenly felt himself being gripped by the neck and pushed into the wall. His old friends and his new friends gasped when they saw this happen.

The small boy took a look at who had grabbed him and saw another man who had long, black hair and piercing red eyes. He also wore the same exact robes as the other stranger. Yugi stared, afraid of that cold, merciless stare that was being given to him, and he desperately tried to struggle and free himself. However, he couldn't get away.

"HEY!" Joey yelled with extreme rage. "Let go of my friend, punk!"

He ran and tried to get out and help Yugi, but he was stopped by a huge, bandaged sword that was blocking his path. The room's occupants froze and stared at the blue man's weapon as he said menacingly, "Not so fast! If you want to help your little friend, you'll have to give us what we want first."

Joey growled with rage, furious that he couldn't do anything to help, and Tea looked at these two men.

"Who are these guys?" she thought with worry and dread. "And what do they want?"

She looked over at Naruto. He seemed to look frozen with fear as he stared with fear and dread. This only worried Tea even more as she thought, "Naruto looks so frightened. These guys must be really dangerous if even he's scared! Oh, Yugi, please be okay!"

"Who are you, and what do you want? Why are you doing this?" Sakura demanded. Her voice also had a hint of fear in it.

The blue man just chuckled evilly. When hearing this, Sakura said in a shaky voice, "W-what's so funny? I just asked you some questions."

While he enjoyed seeing them squirm, the black haired man spoke calmly, "Well, if you wish for this boy to live. . ." he suddenly tightened his hold on Yugi's throat, causing him to grunt in pain and struggle more. Also, Tea brought her hands to her mouth and gasped, holding back tears of worry, Tristan and Sakura gasped in shock, and Joey growled angrily at this evil man.

Then, the man continued, ". . . it would be wise for you to come with us. . ." He turned his red-eyed stare towards them and uttered the name of who they seeked.

"Naruto."

**LongChappieLongChappieLongChappieLongChappieLongChappie**

**Naruto: Oh, man! What are these guys doing here?**

**Joey: Wait a minute, Naruto! You know these guys?**

**Naruto: Yeah, and their really dangerous! It's a long story!**

**Joey: It can't be that bad, can it? They don't look so tough!**

**Naruto: Oh, believe me! Their tough all right! Especially Itachi! We need to do something really quick before Yugi gets himself killed!**

**Next time: The Power of the Enemy and a Familiar Strength of Willpower!**

**Joey: Wait a minute, what do you mean KILLED?!?**

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**Well, there you have it! It took me a while to think of a good title for the next chappie, but I still think I could've done better. The next chappie will be even more difficult to write, though, since it will be my first descriptive action scene, so wish me luck! I think I was able to express the twist in my story even better than last time, and I'm sure almost all of you caught it. Once again, you don't need to tell me what it is, since I'm the authoress. If any of you have any ideas of what my dividers in the story should be next time, just send me a review! Thank you for reading, and good night/day to you all! This is AnimeSnowflake signing off.**


	4. Enemies and Willpower

**Hey, everybody. I'm back with another long awaited update! I really hope there are no flames for this one, because it took me far too long to type. It was actually going to be longer than this, but I decided to split the rough draft into two different chappies instead. I hope that you guys enjoy my first action scene!**

**Disclaimer: When will everyone get it through their heads? I don't own _Yu-Gi-Oh_, _Naruto_, or their insane characters!**

* * *

_"I'm sorry, but we have to go."_

_Yugi opened the door, but as he exited, he bumped into a man who was standing in the hallway. This stranger had blue hair and blue skin. He also wore black robes with red clouds decorating it._

_"Oh, excuse me, sir," Yugi said without looking up, and he continued to walk._

_As Sasuke stared in shock at what was about to happen, Naruto shouted, "Yugi! Watch out!"_

_Confused, Yugi looked up. Before he could react, however, he suddenly felt himself being gripped by the neck and pushed into the wall. His old friends and his new friends gasped when they saw this happen._

_The small boy took a look at who had grabbed him and saw another man who had long, black hair and piercing red eyes. He also wore the same exact robes as the other stranger. Yugi stared, afraid of that cold, merciless stare that was being given to him, and he desperately tried to struggle and free himself. However, he couldn't get away._

_"HEY!" Joey yelled with extreme rage. "Let go of my friend, punk!"_

_He ran and tried to get out and help Yugi, but he was stopped by a huge, bandaged sword that was blocking his path. The room's occupants froze and stared at the blue man's weapon as he said menacingly, "Not so fast! If you want to help your little friend, you'll have to give us what we want first."_

_Joey growled with rage, furious that he couldn't do anything to help, and Tea looked at these two men._

_"Who are these guys?" she thought with worry and dread. "And what do they want?"_

_"Who are you, and what do you want? Why are you doing this?" Sakura demanded. Her voice also had a hint of fear in it._

_The blue man just chuckled evilly. When hearing this, Sakura said in a shaky voice, "W-what's so funny? I just asked you some questions."_

_While he enjoyed seeing them squirm, the black haired man spoke calmly, "Well, if you wish for this boy to live. . ." he suddenly tightened his hold on Yugi's throat, causing him to grunt in pain and struggle more. Also, Tea brought her hands to her mouth and gasped, holding back tears of worry, Tristan and Sakura gasped in shock, and Joey growled angrily at this evil man._

_Then, the man continued, ". . . it would be wise for you to come with us. . ." He turned his red-eyed stare towards them and uttered the name of who they seeked._

_"Naruto."_

**The Power of the Enemy and a Familiar Strength of Willpower**

The air in the training building was tense at that moment

The air in the training building was tense at that moment. As the two older, cloaked gentlemen stared at the shocked and surprised faces of the younger teens, Naruto and his friends were all paralyzed with fear.

After hearing the red-eyed man's last statement, and after a period of uneasy silence, Sakura finally mustered up enough courage to ask, "Wait, what do you want with Naruto? Are you trying to convince him to join you, or do you just want to use him to get to Kakashi-sensei?"

The man remained silent. Instead, his blue comrade answered, "Neither. We would never want a child like him on our team, and there's no need for us to look for Kakashi."

This startled the pink-haired kunouchi, and she asked, "Huh? Then, why do you want Naruto to come with you?"

"Yeah, and who are you?" Tea managed to ask nervously, overwhelmed by the events going on.

The blue stranger took a moment to think while staring at the nervous, defenseless kids. Then, he said, "The name's Kisame Hoshigaki, and as for why we came for the little brat, I believe that's none of your business."

Hearing his name caused Sakura to think, "Where have I heard that name before?"

Meanwhile, Tristan asked Kisame, "And why is it none of our business?"

The rogue mist ninja just replied, "The reasons we need that child are top secret, and few people are allowed to know them. What makes you think that we would tell you kids anything? You'd never understand."

"What makes you say that?" Joey asked suddenly in an infuriated tone. "Why don't you just let go of our friend, Yugi, there, and then you can tell us all about it!"

"Why tell me this?" Kisame answered, leaving the blond teenager confused. The blue man continued, "Itachi's the one taking care of that shrimp, not me. If you want to pick a fight with him, I won't stop you."

In response to this, Joey turned his angry glares and growls to the man who held his small friend against the wall. As he did this, Tea turned to Sasuke and asked, "Sasuke, can't you do something? You, Sakura, and Naruto have to stop this before things get out of hand! . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sasuke?"

When she got no response, the brunette looked over at the young Uchiha. She was surprised to see that he didn't have that same cold stare as before. Instead, the raven-haired boy was sending death glares to Itachi filled with anger and hate. His hands were in tight fists, and he had his teeth clenched tightly.

Meanwhile, Itachi turned his gaze to Joey, who was still glaring. He calmly said in a somewhat cold tone, "If you would all just let Naruto come quietly with us, then you wouldn't have to stay in this position any longer, or perhaps you wish for this insignificant little runt to suffer?"

"WHAT?!" Joey yelled furiously, finally having snapped. "Excuse me, but that 'runt' you're talking about happens to be my best friend! Do you really think I'd let you mess with any of my friends? Now, you better put Yugi down right now, or else, I'll tear you apart!"

From hearing this, Itachi's cold stare became sharper, and he tightened his grip, causing the young boy to yelp out in pain. Joey automatically lost his anger and widened his eyes in fear and realization.

As Kisame saw the blond teen's attitude change so drastically, he only chuckled and said teasingly, "What's the matter, blondie? I thought you said you were going to tear Itachi apart, or maybe you just realized that he's much stronger than you can handle?"

Joey just stood frozen. Meanwhile, Naruto stared at the Akatsuki members in shock and thought, "How were these guys able to come back so fast, and why now of all times? I need to figure out how we can pass these guys and get help, but how? There's no way we can beat them alone!"

"So, I'm guessing you're another one of those cocky idiots that are all talk and no action, huh?" the blue man asked Joey teasingly.

The blond teenager was slowly building up with rage due to several things. One was the fact that the blue freak in front of him wouldn't shut up. Next was the fact that the two cloaked men appeared out of nowhere to, apparently, kidnap one of his newly made friends. Last but not least, he could tell how much Yugi was suffering. The tri-colored haired boy had stopped struggling a while ago, but he still looked out of breath.

All Joey knew was that the raven-haired man had to go down. So, he put his hands into fists and yelled, "All right, punk! You asked for it!"

Joey began to run towards Itachi, but he was stopped before he could get anywhere. Naruto had gotten a hold of his shoulders from behind, Sakura had restrained his brought-up fist, and Sasuke got right in front of the blond teen's path.

"Get the heck off of me!" Joey yelled at them furiously. "I'm not going to let them get away with hurting Yugi!"

"But you can't fight him!" Sakura scolded with concern in her voice.

"And why not?!" the blond teenager yelled back. What he got were three different responses. . .

"You don't have any ninja skills!" (Sakura)

"He's a lot tougher than you think!" (Naruto)

"Itachi is mine!!" (Sasuke)

Sasuke's teammates stared at him with shock (Naruto) and confusion (Sakura) while Joey replied, "Okay, in order: don't care, can't be that strong, and . . . . . . . what?"

Tristan agreed and said, "Yeah, that's my question."

"What do you mean 'Itachi is yours'?" Tea asked, also confused at the young boy's last statement.

Then, Joey asked, "Yeah, and who exactly is this Itachi guy, anyways?"

At first, Sasuke was silent. Then, while glaring at Itachi, he said, "If you really want to know, he used to be a respected shinobi in our village. He was one of the most powerful members of the ANBU black-ops until he left, but not before slaughtering hundreds. Also, he is known for his skills using the Mangekyou Sharingan."

Sakura's eyes widened as she heard the last statement and exclaimed, "Sharingan? But Sasuke, doesn't that mean that Itachi is . . .?"

"Yeah," he said quietly.

Tristan looked between the two of them, and he asked, "Wait, Itachi is what?"

Neither of them answered. Getting a little impatient, Joey asked, "Well, mini-Kaiba, what is he?"

". . . my. . ." the raven-haired boy didn't finish his silent response.

"Your what?" Tea asked him.

Still, no response came from Sasuke. So, Itachi said, "It looks like he's ashamed to tell you all the truth. Isn't that right?" The next three words to come out of his mouth shocked the young teens in the room (excluding Naruto). . .

"Foolish little brother."

For a moment, stunned silence filled the area as everyone soaked in this information. Then, Joey yelled with shocked, "WHAAAAAAAAAT?!"

"What did he just say?" Tristan exclaimed, not believing his ears.

Tea uttered in confusion, "Brother?"

Meanwhile, Sakura looked between the two Uchihas and thought, "I thought there was something strange about this man. After what Sasuke said about him, I could tell he was an Uchiha, but I never would've guessed that they were brothers!"

"Hey, Sakura," Tristan asked. As the pink-haired kunouchi turned her attention to him, he asked, "How did you know that they were related?"

She answered, "Well, it was when Sasuke said that Itachi had Sharingan."

As Sasuke calmly shut his eyes and searched his pockets for a weapon, Tea asked, "Sharingan?"

"Yeah," Sakura said. "The Sharingan is a very rare power that can only be found in Sasuke's family. It can be used to see the opponent's moves and copy them in an instant."

"Wow," Tea thought. "The Sharingan must be very helpful in a fight."

"That's right," Kisame stated, butting into their conversation. As they turned their heads to look at him, he continued, "However, your friend has barely scratched the surface. The Sharingan is a much more complicated technique than that. The only way to fully and completely understand its power is to actually possess this gift or to face it in battle."

"Then I'll do just that!" Joey exclaimed.

Tea, Tristan, Sakura, and Naruto stared at him, clearly shocked at this statement. Tea said, "What? But Joey. . ."

"No 'buts' Tea. Nobody gets away with hurting my friends!"

He got ready to go forward, but he was suddenly blocked by Sasuke. This only caused the blond teen to yell, "Mini-Kaiba, get out of my way! I need to destroy that jerk and help Yugi!"

"Just stay out of it," Sasuke responded quietly in a rough voice.

"What?" Joey asked, a little bit startled. Then, he yelled back, "How can you say that? Are you just saying that we should listen to those guys?! So much for being a great Uchiha! You're just a chicken!"

Quickly, Sasuke turned around to face him and said loudly and harshly, "I said stay out of it!"

Joey went back in shock. He hadn't seen Sasuke this mad before. Plus, he and his friends were a bit frightened by the raven-haired boy's eyes. Instead of their usual onyx color, Sasuke's eyes were now a deep shade of red.

While they looked at him silently, Sasuke said in a voice that was calm but still filled with anger, "I've already told you once, and I'll tell you as many times as it takes to get it through that empty head of yours."

Then, he turned towards his brother and said, "Itachi is mine."

As the raven-haired boy pulled out a kunai, Tea uttered, "That was strange. How did his eyes turn red like that?"

"That's the Sharingan," Sakura told them.

"Seriously?" Tristan asked in surprise. "I thought the Sharingan was an actual weapon, like a sword or something."

Joey had no response to this. He just stared at Sasuke with wonder of his rare power.

Meanwhile, Itachi told his partner calmly, "Kisame, I'll leave Naruto and the others to you."

The blue man nodded, understanding what his partner had to do.

Finally, after a few more seconds of silence, Sasuke suddenly ran forward and charged straight for his older brother.

While Kisame stepped aside and left the raven-haired boy a clear path, Tea said, "Wait! This fight hardly seems fair! Right now, that man, Itachi, is holding onto Yugi with his right hand. That's giving Sasuke a major advantage! Plus, they're brothers, so wouldn't they want to avoid hurting each other?"

"Well, if they were ordinary brothers, they would."

All of them looked over at Naruto, who, at this point, looked truly afraid for his rival. Sakura asked him, "What do you mean?"

Kisame chuckled and said, "Just watch and find out."

Almost immediately, everybody's attention turned to the two Uchihas. Sasuke was closing in on Itachi, and he attempted to slash the older man with the kunai in his hand. However, at the last second, Itachi swiftly moved his free arm forward, causing his fist to slam right into Sasuke's abdomen. The young boy hunched over in pain, and he took a painful gasp of breath.

Now, Naruto's friends were filled with confusion. The only one that had the voice to speak was Tea, who only uttered, ". . . What? Why did he . . .?"

Itachi pulled his hand back after a moment, and Sasuke fell to the ground with a thud, dropping his kunai in front of him.

"Man, that's brutal," Tristan uttered as he stared at the boy on the hallway floor.

". . . Yeah," Joey agreed. Suddenly, he realized something and shouted, "Hey, wait a minute! Sakura, Naruto! I thought you guys said that mini-Kaiba over there was a skilled fighter! If that's true, how did he get taken down so easily?"

"There are several obvious reasons for that, blondie," Kisame said in a matter-of-fact tone. When he had their attention, the blue man continued, "First of all, Itachi's ninja abilities far surpass your friend's, whether Itachi is busy doing something or not. Second of all, the boy was clearly blinded by his own rage, so that reduced his power drastically. And finally, when Itachi fights an opponent, he never shows mercy, not even to his own baby brother."

Curious and confused, the pink-haired kunouchi asked, "What do you mean he was 'blinded by rage'?"

"Oh? You haven't realized it yet? I would've thought that brat, Naruto, would have told you all about it," Kisame said to them.

This bewildered her and the older teens, and they looked over at the blond shinobi whose face couldn't be read clearly at the moment. Before any of them could say anything, the rogue mist ninja said, "Well, I'll tell you this. Even though they're related, those two have always shared an intense hatred of each other."

The four other occupants showed sudden shock at this statement. None of them could believe that the two Uchihas actually loathed each other! Sakura was the first to come out of this state, and she quietly asked, ". . . Hate? But . . . why?"

"It's not my place to say. You'd have to ask them about it," the blue man replied, gesturing to the raven-haired ninjas in the hall. "I'm not sure you'd get any answers, though. You could try, but Itachi would probably destroy you brats if you took one step out of this room. If you're lucky, his brother could tell you, but that's only if Itachi decides to spare him like before."

Tea and Sakura looked at him with surprise and fear. The pink-haired kunouchi looked towards her crush and thought, "Spare him? Would Itachi actually consider . . .?"

For a moment, Sasuke tried his hardest to get over the pain. He slowly opened his eyes and spotted the kunai he had dropped earlier. After taking a few intakes of breath, he moved his arm in an attempt to grab his ninja weapon. However, Itachi had spotted this, and he pushed his foot onto the young boy's arm. This caused Sasuke to yelp in surprise.

Naruto almost couldn't bear to watch this. He thought, "I can't believe this. This is just like the last time."

In the blond shinobi's mind, memories of his first encounter with these men resurfaced. He saw mental images of Sasuke's fight with Itachi: from the Chidori that was so easily blocked, to the cruel beating that his rival had received, and finally ending with that bloodcurdling scream of pure horror that was caused by the strange and mysterious technique that Itachi used. Naruto was hoping that this encounter would not end like the last one.

Sasuke was grunting in pain as he tried to pull his arm out from under his brother's foot, but he couldn't budge an inch.

While he did this, Itachi glared down at his younger brother and muttered, "You're still too weak, Sasuke. At this rate, you'll never be strong enough to defeat me."

After saying this, Itachi pressed his foot down harder on Sasuke's arm, coming closer to breaking it. This caused Sasuke to shout out in pain once again.

"NO! Stop it!" Sakura yelled with tears in her eyes. "Please, stop it!"

Finally, Naruto stepped out and yelled in an angry and fearful voice, "Leave him alone!"

"Itachi turned to face the blond ninja, and his red, Sharingan eyes stared into terrified, blue eyes. The older Uchiha male just calmly said, "Naruto, you know how to stop this."

Naruto didn't respond. Instead, he looked away from him and thought, "He's right. I do know the way to stop them. I can't just turn myself in, though! . . . . . But," he looked over at Sasuke. ". . . from the way things are going, I may have no choice."

After a period of silence, Itachi calmly stated, "Naruto, if you would just agree to come with us, you wouldn't have to see your foolish friends suffer like this. You're nothing but a burden to them, so just co . . ."

Suddenly, without warning, a foot came in contact with Itachi's face. Kisame looked over at his comrade, and his eyes widened in curiosity at the sight. Confused at the sudden silence, Sasuke also looked at his brother. When he saw what had happened, he couldn't believe his eyes. Everybody else in the room just stared with mixed feelings of shock, amazement, and confusion.

Itachi turned his gaze to the direction where the kick came from. What he saw was Yugi, tightly gripping the red-eyed man's wrists and pressing his foot tightly against his cheek. The small boy no longer showed fear in his eyes, but a sense of fighting power behind the gaze. As Itachi glared at him, Yugi managed to utter defiantly, "Leave them alone!"

For a moment, their gazes locked as Itachi tried to make Yugi back down. However, the look of defiance in the small boy's eyes didn't disappear. After a while, Yugi's foot fell back in place, but he didn't turn his gaze away.

Finally, Itachi decided to take his foot off of his younger brother, which caused Sakura and Tea to let out relieved breaths. Their relief didn't last long, however, because Itachi decided to get Sasuke out of the way by kicking him back roughly. Sasuke let out a short shout of pain and put his arm across his chest in an attempt to ease the pain.

While all the kids in the room expressed faces of shock, Yugi said to Itachi in a demanding tone, "I thought I told you to leave them alone!"

The red-eyed man only tightened his grip, causing the tri-colored haired boy to grunt in pain. He then looked over to him and said, "I believe you are in no position to be making demands. You must think that you're invincible, standing up for your friends and taking the blow . . ."

Suddenly, he moved his face closer to Yugi's, and he whispered so only he could hear, ". . . just like last time."

The small boy's eyes went wide in confusion, and he thought, "What?"

"But you just don't realize that's what's making you so weak, now," Itachi continued saying calmly. "In any case, I have no time to deal with you right now."

After saying this, he simply tossed Yugi down the hallway. The small boy's back hit the wall hard, and he slumped over in pain.

"Yugi!" the short boy's friends shouted in concern, hoping that he was all right.

Finally, Naruto couldn't stand sitting by and doing nothing. He turned to the two cloaked men with a look of rage in his eyes and said angrily, "All right. I've had enough of this!"

"It's about time you made your move, brat," Kisame thought as he saw Naruto's change in attitude.

The blue-haired man stepped into the room and said casually, "You know, I almost pity that boy. If he had just kept his mouth shut, Itachi wouldn't have treated him that way. It seems that he'll be out of it for a while, so why don't we test your strength for a while, brat? I'd like to have some fun with you and your little friends before capturing you."

In response to his statement, Naruto brought up a fist and yelled, "Well, I'd like to see you try it!"

"Aw, yeah!" Joey said with excitement. "Now, that's what I'm talking about! So, are we gonna rumble or what?"

"No, Joey!" Tea and Sakura said sternly.

"What?" Joey asked surprised. "Why not?"

The brunette reminded her blond friend, "You heard Sakura. We don't know how to fight like these guys. If you even tried to get near them, you'd be killed!"

"And plus," Sakura added. "Even if you had experience, these guys would have us outclassed!"

As Joey silently fumed from being called inferior, the pink-haired kunouchi turned to her blond teammate and said, "You shouldn't fight them either, Naruto! I don't know why these guys are after you, but if you fight them, you'll be doing just what they want you to do!"

"I don't have any choice, Sakura!" Naruto yelled back at her. While Sakura looked at him with shock and wonder, the blond shinobi thought back to what he had told Yugi yesterday . . .

"_Besides, I don't want my new friends to get hurt."_

"I can't let them hurt my friends anymore!" he thought angrily. "It's time I show them how strong I've become!"

"Well, will you do something already?" Kisame asked in a taunting manner. "I'm quite bored right now."

Naruto growled with rage and yelled, "Fine! Let's see you fight against this!" Then, he put his hands in the sign for his favorite technique and yelled, "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

"Naruto, wait!" Sakura yelled with worry, but it was too late. Suddenly, there were 5 extra Narutos in the room. Seeing this caused Joey, Tristan, and Tea to drop their jaws in awe.

"Whoa," Tristan uttered. "Do you guys see what I see?"

"Yeah," Joey answered. "How did he do that?"

All Tea did was utter out, ". . . Amazing."

The other shinobi just watched the boy and his clones as if they saw this every day. After a moment, the blue man finally said, "Shadow clones . . . not bad, but let's see you back it up with an attack."

In response, the blond ninja and his replicas smirked and said in unison, "All right, but don't say I didn't warn you!"

As soon as this was said, all of the clones charged at Kisame with fists brought up. Meanwhile, the real Naruto prepared to strike the blue man after his clones.

"All right, Naruto!" Joey cheered, clearly enthusiastic about the fight. "Kick that blue freak's ass!"

Tea, however, was having second thoughts about this. Normally, she would be cheering as well, but after seeing the kind of power Itachi had, the brunette girl was worried about what kind of strength his friend might have. She wanted to make sure that her feelings of uneasiness were wrong, so Tea turned to Sakura and quietly asked, "Sakura, do you think Naruto will be okay?"

The pink-haired kunouchi was about as worried as Tea at that moment and she replied, ". . . I don't know."

As he saw the 5 Naruto duplicates run towards him, Kisame just smirked and thought, "Too easy."

Quickly, the blue man swung his sword and wiped out all of the clones at once. As Naruto watched in shock how easily his clones were destroyed, Kisame brought out his free fist, and he punched the blond shinobi in the stomach and pushed him back. Naruto was sent back a couple feet, and he fell to the floor in pain.

The girls gasped in shock, and Joey and Tristan ran over to their ninja companion. While Joey helped Naruto get back on his feet, Tristan asked, "Naruto, are you okay, man?"

Naruto glared at Kisame while keeping an arm across his chest and answered, "Yeah, I'm fine."

Then, Kisame scowled and said, "You know, you brats are a lot more trouble than you're worth. I'll teach you to stay out of affairs that don't concern you."

In response to this, Joey gave him an angry glare, the girls looked at him in confusion, and Tristan asked, "And just how are you going to do that?"

The blue man grinned sinisterly and said, "Why, thank you for asking. Why don't I show you?"

Before he could make a grab for his giant weapon, however, his raven-haired companion said, "Kisame, let's not waste our time. Please, focus on why we came here."

"Oh, come on, Itachi," Kisame replied. "Let me cut off at least a leg or two before we go."

The teens' eyes went wide at this statement, and Joey asked Naruto, "Was this guy crazy enough to suggest that when you met him last time?!"

"Yes, actually, I was. Thanks for the compliment," the blue man answered for him, earning a look of fright from the blond teen. While they were silent, Kisame said, "But seriously, Itachi, can't I just have a little more fun with these brats?"

"Perhaps you've forgotten what happened the last time we took too long to claim Naruto," Itachi told him.

Kisame went silent. He had completely forgotten about when they had gotten so close to their goal only to have their plans stopped by one of the legendary Sannin. His raven-haired partner continued saying, "We can't have any interruptions on our mission, so let's end this before anything else happens."

At that moment, Itachi heard a whizzing noise. He spun around quickly and caught the kunai that was thrown straight towards him.

"Like that?" Kisame asked, slightly amused.

Itachi only responded with a cold glare at his partner. Then, he turned to his younger brother, who weakly stood on his feet. Sasuke was glaring at him, and he angrily said, "Your fight is with me, Itachi!"

Everyone looked at him with mixed feelings. Joey thought, "What does mini-Kaiba think he's doing? Can't he tell that Itachi is too strong for him to handle?"

No one did anything for a while, waiting for someone to comment. Finally, Itachi calmly told his brother, "Why don't you stay out of this? I have no time for your pathetic attempts."

In response to this, the younger Uchiha male's fist clenched and he brought it up while yelling, "Shut up!"

He went forward to try and punch Itachi, but the raven-haired man just gripped his arm, stopping his attack. Then, Itachi kicked his younger brother back into the wall, causing Sasuke to slump back to the ground.

When Sakura saw the look of pain on her crush's face, she couldn't stand it. The pink-haired kunouchi went forward to try and help him.

"Sakura, wait!" Tea said sternly as she grabbed her arm and pulled her back. "I know you want to help him; believe me, so do I, but if you try and go out there, there's no guarantee that you'll come back all right."

"Your little friend is right, girl," Kisame said, catching their attention. "I'd make sure to cut you to ribbons. Even if you managed to get past me, you would never be able to defeat Itachi. Your fate would be the same as his."

While blocking their route of escape, the blue man asked his partner, "So, Itachi, will you actually kill him this time?"

The faces of the five occupants in the room became filled with shock, but they quickly changed to faces of confusion and worry as the raven-haired man replied, "Not now, Kisame."

They turned their heads to Itachi, and he continued, "He's not worth killing yet. However, at this rate, he'll never get stronger. Perhaps if I crack a rib or two, Sasuke will have the proper motivation to get stronger."

With this being said, Itachi went over to Sasuke and kicked him so the young boy would be lying on his back. Then, he dug the heel of his foot into his brother's chest. This caused the young Uchiha heir to cough up blood.

Seeing this caused Sakura to begin crying from fear and worry, and Joey yelled at the man, "Hey! Knock it off!"

Itachi just ignored him. The blond teenager glared at him and thought, "Man, no one deserves to be treated like that, not even a jerk like Sasuke! How can Itachi do that without any emotion, and to his own brother? That bastard!"

Naruto acted differently than everyone else, however. In an act of frustration and fear, he ran straight for Itachi and yelled, "That does it! I've had enough of this!"

"Not so fast!" Kisame shouted as he faced the blond shinobi and went forward. He then brought out his free arm and pounded Naruto in his side, causing the young boy to be sent to the opposite side of the room.

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled with worry in her voice as she quickly ran over to him.

As she checked her teammate and friend to make sure that he wasn't injured badly, Kisame told them, "Look, why don't you kids stop resisting and hand that brat over to us? Your lives are in our hands, so it would be smart for you to listen."

"Well, we're not gonna!" Joey yelled furiously at him. "After what you've done, how can we?!"

"Joey, don't push them!" Tea pleaded with him. Then she told the two men with desperation in her voice, "Please, just stop this, and leave Sasuke alone! Whatever it is you want, he has nothing to do with it!"

"Actually, he does."

With tears held back and a look of confusion in her eyes, the teenage brunette looked over at Itachi. The red-eyed man continued, "In fact, you, Sasuke, and everyone in this building has something to do with what we want. The one we seek, Naruto, has come in contact with many people in his life, and they all have a part to play in our mission. Some help us while others are nothing more than a nuisance. Those that get in the way of our mission have to be dealt with accordingly."

"Dealt with accordingly?" Tristan asked in a confused and curious tone. "What does that mean?"

Joey added in an irate tone, "Are you saying that you would kill us if it meant getting Naruto to come with you guys?"

"Well, if things reach that extent, then yes," Itachi responded calmly, earning a few surprised faces looking up at him.

Kisame, who was enjoying their looks of fear, added with a smirk, "That's right, but Itachi will spare all of you if you decide to let that brat come with us right now."

Everyone went into an unnerving silence. While Sasuke tried at vain attempts to get his older brother off of him with whatever strength he had, the rest of Naruto's friends tried to think of what to do. After a minute or two, before they could do or say anything . . .

". . . Coward."

Almost immediately, the eyes of the leaf shinobi and teens went wide with shock. Even Kisame's face changed in amusement and surprise for a brief moment before he looked in the direction of where the statement came from. Itachi's face could not be read, however, although he clenched his hands into fists slightly.

The blue man looked down the hallway, and he saw that Yugi had gotten out of consciousness a lot sooner than everyone thought. The small boy had one arm resting against the wall while the other was across his chest. He had his head down and was panting heavily.

Shortly after Yugi's statement, Kisame chuckled and said, "Hey, can you repeat that, shrimp? I didn't quite catch it."

"Oh, Yugi. . ." Tea silently whispered, both shocked at what he said and awed by her friend's bravery.

When Naruto stood back up and heard Yugi's comment, he was dumbfounded and asked, "Hey, Joey, did he just call Itachi a . . .?"

"Yeah," he replied, equally bewildered. "I think he did."

After a minute of no response, without even moving, Itachi asked coldly, "Come again?"

For a while, Yugi didn't answer, taking deep breaths. Then, he said, "You came to get Naruto . . . . . right? You could have gotten him whenever you wanted, but instead of facing him alone, you torture those close to him until you convince Naruto to come without a fight . . ."

The small boy paused for a brief moment. Then, he brought his head up, and his face was not one normally on Yugi's face. His amethyst eyes were filled with a deep anger that was only reserved for truly evil foes. After burning his glare into Itachi, he continued, "That's pretty low. Right now, you're acting no different than a bully. Itachi, you're nothing but a coward!"

The young ninja couldn't believe their ears. Sakura thought, "I can't believe he said it again!"

"Whoa," Naruto thought. "I've never heard Yugi this mad before. He sounds so sure of himself, but he has no idea what kind of man he's dealing with!"

Meanwhile, the tri-colored haired boy's declaration had also caused Sasuke to freeze as well. The young raven-haired boy thought, "What does he think he's doing? Doesn't he know that he'll make things worse?!"

After a minute had passed (although it felt like an eternity), Itachi closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and said, "Fine, then."

Only Kisame could catch the slight change in the raven-haired man's tone, and he smirked to himself and thought, "Well, this kid is officially screwed."

As Yugi looked at the older Uchiha, wondering what he would say, Itachi said, "I was just going to leave you there while I took Naruto, but now, it would appear that I've changed my mind."

Then, he took his foot off of his little brother and turned around to face the small boy with his eyes still closed. The raven-haired man dug around in the pockets of his cloak next. When he brought his arms up across his chest, there were three small shuriken in each hand. Finally, after a short period of time, Itachi's eyes opened, having a hateful aura in them, and he stated, "Now, you're a target."

While Yugi's eyes widened in confusion, Sakura asked herself in confusion, "Target? What does he mean 'target'?"

No one responded, but they all knew that this couldn't be a good thing. A few seconds after making this declaration, Itachi threw his shuriken down the hall and towards the small boy. Yugi instinctively shut his eyes tight and brought his arms in front of him in an attempt to block the small weapons. Quickly, the shuriken had become imbedded in the wall.

"Oh no!" Tea shouted as she witnessed the shuriken being thrown, fearing the worst for her friend.

"Yugi!" Sakura shouted. "Are you all right?"

After coming out of his shock, the tri-colored haired boy opened his eyes slowly and replied, "I. . . I think so. I think Itachi missed."

All of Yugi's friends in the room took relieved breaths after hearing that he was fine. Sasuke, on the other hand, was surprised at what he heard. As he lay on the ground, the raven-haired boy thought, "How's that possible? I know Itachi's skills involving shuriken, and he doesn't miss often. What was Itachi's reason for that?"

Itachi began walking towards where Yugi stood. The small boy froze as he saw the red-eyed man moving towards him. As Naruto saw this, though, the blond shinobi got into a panic and yelled, "Yugi, RUN! Get out of here now!!"

The tri-colored haired boy got out of his frozen state, a little surprised at what his new friend said. He started protesting, "But, what about . . . ?"

"No, Yugi!" Sakura shouted back. "Naruto is right! We'll be fine for a few minutes. Just hurry and get help!"

"O . . . okay, I will," Yugi replied. He tried to move, but something kept him from doing so. Startled, the small boy looked around to see what was keeping him rooted to the spot. As he looked at his arms, he saw that Itachi's shuriken might not have missed.

By this time, Sasuke was able to roll over to his side. When he looked down the hallway to where Yugi was, he saw that the shuriken that his older brother had thrown had not only been caught in the wall, but also in the upper sleeves of Yugi's jacket. The raven-haired boy thought with realization, "So that was Itachi's plan!"

When she saw the slight look of shock in the raven-haired boy's eyes, Tea asked, "Sasuke, what's wrong?"

He answered, "It's Yugi; he's not moving."

"What?!" Sakura yelled in shock while the other teens got shocked looks on their faces. "He should know that we need help! Why isn't he getting out of here?"

"For one very obvious reason, girl: he can't."

As Kisame stepped back into the room once more, Joey asked angrily, "What do you mean 'he can't'?"

The blue man stared at him, sighed and asked, "You really are a moron, aren't you?"

"Just answer the question!" The blond teenager yelled at him.

The older man answered teasingly, "All right. Take it easy, blondie."

Joey's anger once again reached a boiling point as the blue man had emphasized his new nickname. His face turned red, and he nearly screamed, "And would you STOP calling me BLONDIE?!"

Then, he tried to pounce on Kisame only to have Tristan hold him back and say, "Take it easy, man! Calm down!"

After things were a little calmer, the blue man continued, "Anyways, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, Yugi can't leave. Itachi's attack wasn't supposed to hurt the shrimp. It was meant to pin him in place: to keep him from running away."

"Why would he do that?" Tea asked nervously, afraid of the answer she would get.

Kisame just told them calmly, "Well, you see, if Itachi . . . wait. If either of us declares someone a target, then that means one of two things: either we capture them, not likely in this case. . ."

He paused for a slight moment. As everyone stared intently at him, waiting for Kisame to finish, the blue man finished, ". . . or, most likely, we kill them."

Everyone's eyes widened in surprise and fright as they heard this. No one could believe what they heard. Naruto, in particular, was put in a frantic state of mind, and he thought, "No way . . . . . we have to hurry and get out of here! If Yugi doesn't get away soon, he'll die!"

Meanwhile, Yugi had been struggling to get out of his jacket. As he worked on getting his right arm out, Yami told him through their minds, "Yugi, this situation is becoming too dangerous! Let me take over."

"No!" Yugi answered through their mind link. "I don't want you put in danger, too! Besides, Itachi is Sasuke's brother and if Sasuke was already suspicious about the puzzle . . ."

"Of course!" Yami responded, realizing what point his partner was making. "Itachi would automatically know that something has changed if we switch! Our secret would be exposed!"

As Yugi finished pulling out his right arm, he thought, "Exactly. I'm sorry, Yami, but I have to do this alone."

". . . . . Be careful, Yugi," Yami told him before retreating into the confines of the Millennium Puzzle.

After taking a quick glance down the hall and seeing Itachi about 20 feet away, the small boy quickly focused on pulling his left arm out of the jacket. As he got it out, he ignored the small sting on his arm after moving it past the shuriken. Now freed from the shuriken and exposing his sleeveless black shirt, he moved to run out of the area. However, he felt his recently freed arm get grabbed roughly. Then, he was pulled back and pushed against the wall.

Yugi turned his head to see Itachi glaring back at him. Then, the raven-haired man said, "You're a fool for what you said. Now, I'll teach you not to make smart remarks like that again."

**ElsewhereElsewhereElsewhereElsewhereElsewhere**

Meanwhile, in the streets of the hidden leaf village, everyone went through their lives as if it was a normal day. Well, this was true for most. On the borders of the village, the ANBU black-ops were frantically searching for a trail to find the two rogue ninjas.

As the ANBU did this, Kakashi was moving swiftly and silently through the village. He had been on edge ever since his brief meeting with the Hokage . . .

"_What is it, Lady Hokage?" the silver-haired man asked as soon as he entered her office. "Shizune told me that you had to see me for something."_

_Tsunade looked at him with a sense of urgency in her eyes and said, "Yes, I do. I want you to find your squad immediately!"_

_Kakashi gave her a quizzical look after hearing the urgency in her voice, and he asked, "May I ask why you sound so demanding, Lady Hokage?"_

"_Kakashi! This is serious!" Tsunade growled angrily at him. "Itachi has come into the village, and Naruto could be in danger!"_

_This got Kakashi good. "Itachi came back again? If Naruto is with his teammates, he won't be the only one in danger," he thought as he thought of his star pupil, Sasuke._

_He asked Tsunade, "When did he get into the village?"_

_She didn't hesitate in her reply and said, "About an hour and a half ago. There is the possibility that he might have found Naruto already, so you'll have to move quickly."_

"_. . . Right," Kakashi stated, and before anything else could be said or done, he left the office in a puff of smoke._

"I hope I'm not too late," Kakashi thought to himself as he stopped in front of Sakura's house. The silver-haired man was confused because of the fact that he couldn't find his squad anywhere in the village. So, he cut his finger, performed some hand signs, and cried out, "Ninja Art: Summoning Jutsu!"

The silver-haired man pressed his palm down onto the ground, and after the smoke cleared, Pakkun appeared in front of him.

"Yes, what is it, Kakashi?" the brown pug asked him.

Kakashi told him, "Pakkun, I need you to track Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke for me. It would seem that Itachi has come back to the village, and they may be in trouble."

The dog's eyes widened slightly at the mention of Itachi, and he answered, "That's news to me. Well, I'll see what I can do."

The brown pug began sniffing around, but after a while, he said, "Kakashi, I can't find any of their chakra signatures. For some reason, it's as if they've disappeared."

Kakashi's visible eye widened at this. As Pakkun continued to look for a trail of some sort, the silver-haired man thought, "Why would they try to hide their chakra? Did they think that Itachi would find them? . . . No, they wouldn't know that. Even if Naruto and Sasuke had their suspicions, Sakura wouldn't have any reason for it. I really hope Itachi didn't . . ."

"Wait, I think I found something," Pakkun said, bringing Kakashi out of his thoughts. "It's Sakura's shampoo, but the chakra signature attached to it is one I've never smelt before. I won't be able to tell who it is."

Kakashi briefly wondered who this person was that the small dog smelled out, but told Pakkun, "That will have to do. Let's go."

With this being said, the man and dog quickly moved through the street.

**ElsewhereElsewhereElsewhereElsewhereElsewhere**

Once again, Naruto tried to make it past Kisame, but he failed miserably as the blue man just swatted him away.

"Give it up," Kisame said with cockiness in his voice. After knocking away Sakura's shuriken with his sword, he continued, "There's nothing that can save your little friend now."

Joey came from the ninja's right side, ready to punch him. However, the blue man just punched him back with his free arm. The blond teenager panted heavily, tired from the hit, and glared at him.

Despite the odds against them, everyone still tried to get out and escape, afraid for their small friend. Kisame just thought to himself, "I guess I'll be busy for a while. Oh, well. I was really hoping to see what was going on with you and the shrimp, Itachi."

**OtherBattleOtherBattleOtherBattleOtherBattleOtherBattle**

Meanwhile, Itachi was busy holding said shrimp against the wall. The red-eyed man just stared at Yugi, waiting for a response from the small boy. Finally, Yugi said, "What are you waiting for? If you want to get away with Naruto, you'll have to get through me first."

Itachi stared at him, seeing the truth behind his words. In reality, Yugi was scared to death, trying not to show it to the red-eyed man. However, the small boy was more worried about his friends than himself. Itachi thought, "Should I even waste my time with this runt? We came for Naruto, and the goals of the Akatsuki should always come first. However, this boy needs to learn a lesson."

After the short silence, Yugi was worried that Itachi would head back towards Naruto. So, to have Itachi make up his mind, he shouted at Itachi with a determined tone in his voice, "Well, give it your best shot!"

Before anything else could be said, Itachi pounded his fist into the small boy's chest quickly. Yugi gasped in pain for air, and Itachi let him go, allowing the small boy to fall to the ground. Yugi brought himself onto his hands and knees and coughed up a small bit of blood. Seeing this, the tri-colored haired boy thought, "Incredible! Itachi's so strong that he can make his opponents cough up blood after one attack? He's not someone to take lightly."

Itachi bent down to Yugi's height calmly. Then, he grabbed Yugi's chin roughly and brought the small boy's head up to meet his gaze. He then asked him, "Look, I don't want to fight someone who's too weak to even defend themselves, so I'll give you a choice. Will you fight back?"

A long period of silence followed his question, and crimson red eyes gazed into deep amethyst eyes. Finally, the tri-colored haired boy was able to calm himself and answer with defiance, "No."

Itachi had decided not to respond, feeling that Yugi had something else to add. The small boy continued, "I won't. I won't become a bully like you!"

The raven-haired man closed his eyes and released his grip on Yugi. Then, Itachi shook his head and said, "You understand so little. Let me tell you something, Yugi."

Unseen by Itachi, Yugi's eyes widened. The way that Itachi had said his name made him feel uneasy, somehow. It was as if the raven-haired man's voice held loathing in that simple word, at it put the small boy on guard.

Itachi then continued, "There is a major difference between bullies, as you call them, and ninjas. Bullies, although they seem strong, are really dimwitted humans. They only face those that can't defend themselves, and their moves are too slow to cause any real damage. . ."

At that moment, Itachi grabbed Yugi by the front of his shirt and brought the small boy back on his feet. Still tightly holding onto him, the red-eyed man said, "Ninjas, however, are on a whole different level. They'll fight any opponent they find worthy of their time, and they have the common sense to take out those that are threats to their being. Also, a ninja's strikes are conditioned to be powerful and swift at once. Like so . . ."

Before Yugi could make any type of response, Itachi let go of him and punched him across the face in the blink of an eye. The small boy quickly collided with the wall to his left and fell to the floor, coughing up more blood.

As Yugi panted and looked up at Itachi, he heard Yami say through their mind link, "Yugi! This man could kill you! Please, you must let me take over! We may be revealing our secret to him, but I can't just sit by and watch you get hurt!"

Then, the small boy actually began pulling off his puzzle and replied, "I said no! Like I said before, I don't want to risk you getting hurt as well. You have to trust me on this. I can handle this!"

Yami really disagreed with his friend's decision, but if Yugi was taking off the Millennium Puzzle, there would be nothing that he could do about it. All the spirit of the puzzle could do was wait and hope that his partner didn't get himself killed.

Meanwhile, Yugi's actions hadn't gone unnoticed. When Itachi saw the tri-colored hair boy remove the golden object from around his neck, he decided to kneel down next to the boy. He asked more to himself then Yugi, "What do you have here?"

Itachi grabbed the chain that was connected to the object, but Yugi just gripped the chain tighter and tried to pull it away from the red-eyed man. The small boy cried out, "Don't touch it!"

The raven-haired man just moved his free hand towards his opponent's outstretched arm. Then, he squeezed Yugi's wrist hard. The small boy's reflexes kicked in immediately, and he let go of the chain while wincing in pain.

Itachi held up the object and inspected it. Apparently, it was an upside-down pyramid made of small golden objects. As he looked at the strange eye on one of the faces of the pyramid, he could sense what seemed to be another source of chakra, and the raven-haired man thought, "I have a feeling this object is more than it seems, but for now, it means nothing to me."

"How is this important to you?" Itachi asked the small boy. "It's just a regular antique. You'd be better off without it."

With that being said, Itachi gently tossed the puzzle behind him. Luckily for Yugi, it didn't break as it made contact with the floor.

"Be careful with that!" Yugi yelled at Itachi. "It's very fragile!"

The raven-haired man just glared coldly at the boy. Slowly, he put his hand around the small boy's neck, and then he proceeded to slam his body into the wall. It seemed as if he was almost done with torturing him and that he would soon finish things . . .

**OtherBattleOtherBattleOtherBattleOtherBattleOtherBattle**

Kisame was getting infuriated. The blue man had already blocked against 13 punches, 9 kicks, 5 dashes, and 20 shuriken, and the teens still weren't giving up. He thought, "No matter what I do, these brats just keep coming back for more. I guess it's time I took things up a notch."

Right at the end of his thoughts, Joey came running for the exit again. Instead of pushing him away, the blue man swung his sword in an attempt to slice the young teen.

"Joey! Watch out!" Tea yelled from the sidelines.

Luckily, Joey had enough time to get out of the way. The mighty sword was swung just a few inches away from his left cheek. After putting some distance between him and the blue man, the blond teen bragged, "Ha! You missed!"

"Oh, did I?" Kisame asked with a smirk.

Joey just looked at him with confusion. Sure enough, a few seconds after the blue man's statement, a cut made itself visible on the blond teen's cheek.

"Wait a minute!" Tristan said. "That sword clearly missed, so how did Joey get cut?"

Suddenly, Sakura gasped in realization, and the pink-haired kunouchi said, "Wait, I remember now. You're Kisame Hoshigaki, one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Hidden Mist Village! Kakashi-sensei told us all about you!"

The blue man suppressed an amused chuckle and said, "Well, it seems that one of you isn't as dumb as you look. So, girl, if you truly know all about me, then you must know about my sword, Samehada, as well."

She remained silent while Tea, Tristan, and Joey stood in confusion. In reality, Kakashi had only told Sakura and her teammates the general information. After a while, Kisame was able to tell that she wasn't going to say anything, and he said, "No? Well then, allow me to fill you in."

He presented the massive sword before them and said, "This is no ordinary weapon, as you can already tell. My sword, Samehada, is known for shredding its foes and absorbing their chakra. Knowing this, the opposite is true as well. My sword can also use that stored chakra to lengthen the blade. So, I don't even have to hit you with the blade itself to cause damage."

Everyone looked at him with wide eyes. While the older teens wondered about what chakra was and how they would be able to go against a weapon like this, Naruto remembered the last time the blue man had used his weapon and thought, "We need to be more careful now. If me and Sakura get swiped by that thing, we're done for!"

After a few seconds, Kisame asked with an evil smirk, "Well, let's continue, shall we?"

**OtherBattleOtherBattleOtherBattleOtherBattleOtherBattle**

As Itachi gazed at the small, worn-out boy, he thought, "Well, I've wasted enough time with this boy. It's time to end this."

Suddenly, he heard Yugi ask, "What is it you want with Naruto, anyways? Why are you and Kisame working so hard to get him?"

The raven-haired man only gave him a cold look and replied, "Kisame already told your friends, didn't he? Our reasons are top secret, so no one must know our motives."

He turned his attention away from the small boy to let him digest this information. Yugi thought, "No one must know their motives? But . . . I still don't understand. If Itachi is this strong, why would he go after Naruto? As far as I know, he doesn't have anything that they would want him for."

Suddenly, something dawned on the tri-colored haired boy as he remembered his conversation with the blond shinobi, and he thought, "Unless. . ."

"_You know, this will be the first time I've ever told someone about this. Most people don't know about it, not even Sakura and Sasuke . . . . . I don't really know most of the details, but apparently, thirteen years ago, our village was being attacked by a demon called the nine-tailed fox. According to Iruka-sensei, though, the fourth Hokage saved the village by trapping that stupid fox inside a human vessel, and . . . well, I'm guessing you can figure out the rest. . . . ."_

". . . Unless that's what they want!" the small boy thought in realization.

By this time, Itachi decided to pull out one of his kunai and finish his fight. He said to Yugi, "Well, it seems that there is no use for me to attack you now. It's time to end this."

Then, he moved his arm forward with kunai in hand, ready to pierce the small boy's chest. Before the kunai made contact, though . . .

". . . You're after the nine-tailed fox."

That sentence came out of Yugi's mouth barely above a whisper, but it was enough to cause Itachi to stop his attack. Although he didn't show it, he was quite surprised at what he heard, so to make sure that he heard it right, he asked, "What was that?"

The small boy whispered out, "It's not Naruto you want. You're only after the demon sealed inside of him. Why? What is it you're hoping to accomplish?"

There was an unnerving silence between the two of them for quite some time. After coming to a decision in his mind, Itachi pulled the weapon away and said, "I don't know how you learned of that, but it would seem you have changed my mind again."

Yugi stared back at him in bewilderment, wondering what Itachi had in mind now. His question was answered as the red-eyed man said, "Yugi, it seems you'll be coming with us."

The small boy's eyes widened with shock and fear. He attempted to move away, but Itachi managed to get a tight grip on Yugi's left arm before he could do anything. As Yugi struggled to break free, Itachi said calmly, "You're not getting away that easily."

Then, the red-eyed man pinned the small boy's arm roughly against the wall. He said, "You will come with us, even if we have to use force. However, before I forget. . ."

Yugi gasped in fear as he saw Itachi's kunai get brought up again, and the raven-haired man finished, ". . . you'll have to pay for that 'coward' comment earlier."

Meanwhile, Sasuke had been observing all of this from his place on the floor. He couldn't hear what they were saying, but he could clearly see the weapon held by his brother.

"No! I can't let Itachi get away with this!" the raven-haired boy thought angrily.

He tried to get up, but since his body was still in pain, Sasuke was moving at a very slow pace. The young Uchiha heir just urged himself to move and began to stand.

**OtherBattleOtherBattleOtherBattleOtherBattleOtherBattle**

As all of this was happening, Naruto, Sakura, Tea, Joey, and Tristan were in a standstill with Kisame. Before anyone could try any escape attempts, the blue man yelled out in frustration, "Augh!"

"What's the matter, Blue Man?" Joey asked tauntingly. "Are you disappointed that your sword hasn't swiped anyone yet?"

"Oh, please," Kisame responded in an annoyed tone. "I could kill any of you brats whenever I feel like it. It's just that Itachi's working slow!"

"What do you mean by that?" Tristan asked.

The blue man growled furiously and said, "Usually, when he deals with someone, he always causes them to scream one way or another."

Naruto shuddered when he heard this, remembering the last battle Sasuke had with Itachi.

After a few seconds, Joey asked, "So? What's your point?"

In frustration, the blue man swung his sword sideways and caused everyone to back up to avoid being hit. Then, he growled out, "My point is that it's been a few minutes since he began dealing with your friend, so all I ask is . . ."

He paused for a moment. Then, Kisame yelled, ". . . where is the bloodcurdling scream?!"

"GYAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!"

Kisame flinched a little bit from the sudden scream, but other than that, he wasn't fazed. When the scream ended, he sighed happily and said, "Ah, that's more like it."

Everybody else just froze with fear. Their blood ran cold, and they all became filled with worry as they recognized that voice. One name came across their minds.

Yugi.

**PreviewPreviewPreviewPreviewPreview**

**Sakura: What just happened?**

**Tea: I don't know! All I know is that Yugi's hurt and we need to help him!**

**Tristan: Yeah, but how? These guys are on a whole different level, and we could never beat them!**

**Joey: We don't have to beat them! All we have to do is get out of here.**

**Sakura: Well, that's obvious, doofus!**

**Naruto: Be quiet, guys! I've got a plan to bust us out of here and save Yugi!**

**Next time - Racing Against the Clock: The Great Escape!**

* * *

**Well, there you have it, folks! Man, that was exhausting. Once again, I fail to make a good chappie title. Before anyone complains, I am aware that I'm using the Japanese name of Kisame's sword instead of the American version. You have to admit, though, the Japanese name is cooler. I'm also aware that I may have gotten Itachi out of character, but he's tough to keep in character! I'm not even gonna say anything about the twist. You guys should know by now not to tell me about it. I expect at least five reviews before I beging typing the next chappie, so please review! See ya later!**


	5. Racing Against the Clock

**Hiya, everyone! As promised, I worked on the update as soon as I received 5 reviews. Thanks to the reviewers! I actually had two very interesting ones: one saying I was evil and the other saying I had Itachi too _in character. _That's the first time I heard about someone being too in character. Anyways, if this chapter doesn't seem as good to you, I won't be surprised. I think I kind of dissappointed myself with this update. Oh, well. I still hope you enjoy this chappie!**

**Disclaimer: Yeah, I wish . . . . . . . . . . . **

* * *

_". . . where is the bloodcurdling scream?!"_

_"GYAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!"_

_Kisame flinched a little bit from the sudden scream, but other than that, he wasn't fazed. When the scream ended, he sighed happily and said, "Ah, that's more like it."_

_Everybody else just froze with fear. Their blood ran cold, and they all became filled with worry as they recognized that voice. One name came across their minds._

_Yugi._

**Racing Against the Clock: The Great Escape**

Kakashi and Pakkun had been following the strange chakra signature for a while now

Kakashi and Pakkun had been following the strange chakra signature for a while now. Surprisingly, it led them to the edge of town. As he saw the gates of the village, Kakashi thought, "Why would this trail lead us out of the leaf village?"

Suddenly, Pakkun came to an abrupt halt. The brown pug turned to his master and said, "Kakashi, we have a problem. The chakra I've been following suddenly disappeared."

Kakashi sighed, thinking, "Someone must've decided to hide this person's chakra just now."

After some thought, the grey-haired man said, "All right, let's turn back and find another trail. With any luck, we'll -"

"GYAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!"

Kakashi stopped in his speech. Both man and dog's ears perked at the sound of the piercing scream. The pug asked, "Kakashi, did you hear that?"

"Yeah," he replied. "I think we may have found our new trail. Let's see where that scream came from!"

And with that, the two left to find the source of the sound as Kakashi wondered if Itachi had something to do with this.

**MeanwhileMeanwhileMeanwhileMeanwhileMeanwhile**

Naruto and his friends stood paralyzed from the scream. After a few seconds, Sakura finally whispered, ". . . Oh my god."

". . . No," the blond shinobi said quietly with disbelief and a clear expression of shock on his face.

Tristan wondered what made his friend scream like that while Joey clenched his teeth and thought, "What did that bastard do now?!"

By this point, tears were flowing freely from Tea's sparkling blue eyes. As everyone else took a moment of silence, she thought, "Oh, no! He's hurt! We've got to do something! Yugi needs us!!"

"Yugi!" she cried out as she ran for the exit.

Her friends saw that Kisame was getting ready to slice her, and Naruto shouted, "Tea, stop!"

Tea didn't listen to him, only thinking about helping her friend by any means necessary. Kisame said, "Foolish move, girl. Now, prepare to die."

"Not so fast!" Sakura yelled as she threw her last several shuriken at the blue man's back.

Kisame saw this move out of the corner of his eye. In order to protect himself, he used his massive sword to deflect the shuriken, allowing Tea to escape. After making this move, he told them, "Nice try, but your attacks have been wasted. Now, instead of having a quick death, that girl will be at the mercy of Itachi."

Out in the hallway, Sasuke had just gotten to a standing position when he saw Tea run past him to his brother. He thought to himself, "What does that girl think she's doing? She's needs to stay out of my way!"

While the raven-haired boy stabilized himself, he searched his pockets for a certain weapon. . .

**SwitchSwitchSwitchSwitchSwitch**

Meanwhile, Yugi was being put into a state of surprise and agony. Itachi had just plunged his kunai into the small boy's left arm, and the blood was flowing rapidly. Currently, the small boy was gasping for breath and making short, abrupt screams as he felt waves of pain wash over him.

"What's the matter, Yugi?" Itachi asked with a smirk. "Haven't you ever been stabbed with a kunai before?"

In response, Yugi shut his eyes tightly and gritted his teeth together, hoping to control his screams. After seeing this, the smirk came off of the raven-haired man's face and he said, "I'll take that as a no. Now then. . ."

He pulled out the kunai, causing the small boy to scream once more. Then, Itachi finished, ". . . You've suffered enough. It's time for you to come with us."

"NO! Get away from him!"

The red-eyed man was pushed out of the way by the brunette girl that ran towards them. While he stared emotionlessly at her, Tea quickly grasped Yugi's hand and said, "Yugi, what did he do to you?"

At this moment, she took time to look at her friend's arm. Tea paled at the sight of the crimson blood. As the tri-colored haired boy squeezed her hand tightly, she realized just how much pain he was in right now.

Tea turned to the man who caused her friend to hurt like this and shouted, "You monster! What did you do to Yugi?"

"I did what was necessary," Itachi replied casually.

The brunette girl didn't understand what he meant by that, so she just settled for glaring at him with tears running down her face. Then, the red-eyed man told her, "Why did you come? You really should have stayed with your other comrades. Now, I have no choice but to get rid of you."

Tea gasped in shock as she saw him pull out the bloody kunai. Despite her fear, however, she put herself between him and Yugi; she wouldn't let her friend get hurt by this man. Before anything else could be done. . .

"Itachi!"

Tea and Itachi turned their heads towards the voice, and they saw Sasuke standing and holding a weapon that looked different from the other that Tea and her friends had seen.

"Why do you make yourself suffer like this?" Itachi asked in a monotone voice. "You should quit now while you have the chance."

In response to his older brother's words, the young boy said with hate lacing each word, "I won't stop until I see you dead!"

Itachi only smirked, infuriating Sasuke even more. Before preparing his weapon, Sasuke shouted, "Tea! Get out of the way!"

For a moment, the young brunette sat confused at what was going on. Then, as she saw the raven-haired boy's weapon unfold into a massive shuriken, Tea pressed herself close to Yugi and the wall.

After seeing that his path was as clear as it could get, Sasuke threw his Demon Wind Shuriken down the hall with perfect precision towards Itachi. As the shuriken sped down the hallway, it split into two.

As the shuriken made their way down the hall, Itachi thought to himself, "Well, at least Sasuke's improving. He's thrown the shuriken in a way so the walls don't get in the shuriken's path, impressive for most. However. . ."

The shuriken were now a few feet away from their target. Before they could hit Itachi, the red-eyed man was able to save himself at the last moment once again. With the bloody kunai, he deflected one massive shuriken, forcing it to become imbedded in the wall just above Tea and Yugi. Then, Itachi caught the other shuriken with his free hand and finished thinking, ". . . it will take more than that to come close to beating me."

When the young brunette opened her eyes, she saw with surprise the shuriken above her head. She looked at Itachi and thought, "How was he able to stop Sasuke's attack?"

Sasuke could only steam quietly at his failed attack. Since the younger Uchiha didn't make a statement, the elder Uchiha said calmly, "That was a foolish move, Sasuke. You should know by now my skills involving shuriken."

Sasuke only growled angrily in response. Then, Itachi put away the bloody kunai and brought up Sasuke's Demon Wind Shuriken while saying, "Now, it's my turn."

In the blink of an eye, the raven-haired man threw the shuriken with incredible speed. Sasuke prepared himself to get out of the way of the weapon, but suddenly. . .

"Ha! I made it out! Take that, you oversized blueberry!"

Sasuke looked towards the voice a little bit shocked; Joey had apparently managed to get past Kisame while Naruto was distracting him with his clones. Instead of welcoming the blond teen, the raven-haired boy yelled angrily, "Joey, get back in there!"

Joey yelled back, "Why would I do tha . . . HOLY SHIT!!"

The blond teen quickly retreated back into the room when he caught sight of the oversized weapon heading straight towards them. Sasuke barely had time to dodge the Demon Wind Shuriken. Although he was able to avoid a fatal injury, the young boy still managed to receive a cut on his shoulder.

"Damn!" Sasuke thought angrily. "If I didn't have the Sharingan activated right now, that move could have killed me! I need to use a different approach."

So, he took out two kunai, one in each hand, and got ready for his next attack.

**SwitchSwitchSwitchSwitchSwitch**

"What happened, Joey?" Naruto asked when he saw the blond teen run straight back into the room as quickly as he got out.

First, Joey panted heavily for a few seconds, eyes wide with surprise. Then, after catching his breath, he yelled dramatically, "Why the hell are you allowed to use weapons bigger than your bodies?!"

Hearing this caused Sakura to realize what had happened in the hallway. She told him, "Sasuke must have used a Demon Wind Shuriken."

"A what?" Tristan and Joey both asked in unison.

"I'll explain later!" the pink-haired kunouchi told them. "First, let's get out of here and help Sasuke and the others!"

"I'm way ahead of you, Sakura!" Naruto told her as he made more shadow clones to distract their blue opponent.

**SwitchSwitchSwitchSwitchSwitch**

Itachi stared as his younger brother, hiding his amusement. He smirked at Sasuke and said, "You're still not ready to quit, I see. There's no way you'll win at the level you're at, but I guess there's no way for me to stop you other than to deal with you myself."

Sasuke's knuckles whitened as his grip on the two kunais tightened, being angered by his older brother. After a few seconds, Itachi got two of his own kunai ready and said, "Come."

He didn't need to say it twice; that one word caused Sasuke to run straight towards him. Immediately, the sound of clanging metal filled the air. No matter how hard the young boy tried, though, the red-eyed man could parry or dodge his attacks with ease.

As they fought, Tea watched in awe and fear. She thought, "Sasuke could be in trouble. There's no way he could beat Itachi right now. I have to do something!"

The young brunette was about to get up, but she felt a tightened grip on her hand. She turned her head to see Yugi looking up at her. The small boy's amethyst eyes were filled with pain, but they also had a look that pleaded her not to get involved.

Tea squeezed his hand back and thought, "That's right. Even if I wanted to help him, I don't know how to stand up to a man like Itachi. Plus, Yugi needs my help too, and I can't let him down."

Eventually, Sasuke and Itachi came to a standstill. The young boy was now on the exact opposite side that he started on, and their kunais pressed against each other. The older of the two said, "As I expected, you still don't have what it takes to face me. Now, you're finished."

With that statement being said, Itachi used his force to knock Sasuke's kunai out of his hands. As soon as this happened, the younger Uchiha had frozen, surprised at the sudden move.

Big mistake.

Using this moment as a perfect opportunity, Itachi gripped his younger brother roughly by the throat and thrust him against the wall.

"Oh, no!" Tea thought. "This is definitely not good!"

**SwitchSwitchSwitchSwitchSwitch**

"Take this!" Joey yelled as he tried once again to land a hit on their blue opponent.

However, just like before, Kisame just stepped out of the way of the blond teen's blow. As soon as he saw his opponent's back, the blue rogue mist ninja attempted to slice him across the back, but this only resulted in another one of Naruto's clones jumping in and taking the hit.

"You sure are pathetic, brat," Kisame said with cockiness in his voice. "Are shadow clones the only thing you can do?"

As he finished his question, a kunai was thrown at him by Sakura. The blue man deflected this easily and turned to see three Narutos running straight for the exit. Kisame thought with annoyance, "More clones? Predictable."

The first two clones came at him with brought up fists. All the cloaked man did to stop them was slash them with Samehada quickly, and they were gone with twin puffs of smoke. Then, out of the smoke, the third Naruto went into a forward slide towards the exit. Kisame was about to cut him in half as well, but then, he saw the smirk and realized the slight difference in power levels with this one.

"Shit!" he thought angrily. "This brat is the real one!"

As the blond shinobi slid across the floor, he shouted, "Guys, now!"

In the brief pause that Kisame spent cursing himself, Joey and Tristan immediately jumped on him and tried their best to restrain him. Automatically, the blue man became infuriated, and he began to shake them off.

As Kisame did this, Naruto's head made contact with the wall of the hallway, giving him a small headache. While he sat up and massaged the top of his head, he looked back into the training room to see what was going on.

Tristan had already been shaken off, and he had backed off a safe distance away. Joey, on the other hand, was keeping up his persistence and gripping tightly onto Kisame. While the blue man was trying to shake him off, the blond teen looked over to Naruto and shouted, "Naruto, why are you waiting here? Hurry up and help the others!"

Naruto only looked back, dumbfounded and amazed. Suddenly, Kisame was finally able to knock him off. Joey ended up landing flat on his butt, and the rogue mist ninja took this as an opportunity to slice him with Samehada. Sakura saw this, and as she moved to protect him, the pink-haired kunouchi shouted, "Joey, watch out!"

She reached the blond teen, back facing Kisame. As the sword made a long cut from her left shoulder to her mid back, the young girl gasped out in pain.

"Sakura!" Naruto cried out, worried for his crush.

Meanwhile, Joey just sat there, staring bewildered at the scene before him. After she fell to her knees and began caressing her injured shoulder, Tristan said with amazement, "Joey, she just saved your life."

"I know! You don't need to tell me!" Joey yelled at him in an irate tone. He moved over to Sakura and asked, "Sakura, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Sakura replied weakly. "You just make sure not to get in range of his sword."

He nodded to her in understanding. Joey then looked over at Naruto and said, "Don't worry, Naruto. We can keep old Blueberry over here busy. You just go help Tea, mini-Kaiba, and Yugi. Okay?"

Naruto processed what he said. After some thought, he nodded quietly to his blond friend. Before running down the hallway, he said, "Joey, please take care of her."

After seeing his friend get up, Joey grabbed Sakura and answered, "Sure thing, pal."

"Aw, how touching," Kisame said sarcastically, catching the blond teen's attention. "It's so sweet that it makes me want to puke! Now, time to end this. Die!"

He swung his sword downward at that moment towards the two of them. Joey barely had the time to push Sakura out of the way and roll away from the weapon. After they got out of the way, Joey quickly picked up the pink-haired girl and ran to his other friend and safety. He dropped Sakura off with Tristan and said, "Tristan, watch over Sakura. I'll distract the blueberry until we're ready to strike back."

While Tristan set Sakura down, Joey turned to Kisame and asked teasingly, "So, Blueberry, are you ready to face the wrath of Joey Wheeler?"

The blue man only smirked and replied, "I'd like to see you try, blondie."

**SwitchSwitchSwitchSwitchSwitch**

Naruto had only taken a few steps before he realized what Itachi was doing. The raven-haired man was holding his younger brother against the wall while Tea looked on in horror from the floor.

In fact, he was holding Sasuke the same way that he had when he used that jutsu . . .

_The blond shinobi's anger was building up with every blow that was being dealt to his rival. Naruto just couldn't stand the fact that Sasuke wouldn't allow him to help fight Itachi. The man did come for him, after all. At the moment, the older man was holding his younger brother up against the wall, and silence reigned in the building. Suddenly, in less than a second, the area was filled with a horror filled scream emitting from his rival's mouth._

"_AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!"_

". . . . . No," Naruto thought in fear as he remembered that moment. "Not again . . . I won't let this happen again!"

For a moment, Itachi stared at Sasuke, who was weakly struggling against his older brother's grip. Then, the older man closed his eyes and uttered, "You're a disappointment, Sasuke. You still lack the one thing necessary to defeat me: the key to true power."

Sasuke knew what his brother was talking about, but he said nothing. The raven-haired boy only glared with intense hatred with his Sharingan eyes.

Quietly, Itachi whispered to him, "Perhaps I need to use that jutsu again."

The look in the young boy's eyes quickly changed to fear, realizing what his brother was planning.

"Mangekyou Sharin -"

"NO!!"

Itachi and Tea turned their heads to see Naruto running swiftly towards them. The blond shinobi's voice and face held a hint of anger and fear in them. As the young brunette wondered how he managed to get past Kisame, Sasuke just thought to himself, "Naruto? Why are you . . . ?"

"Stay the hell away from him!" The blond boy yelled as he continued to run.

Itachi only smirked, confident that things were finally going well for him. Suddenly, he wiped the smirk off his face as he felt another presence approaching the building. The red-eyed man thought, "I don't have time to stick around, not with all of these distractions."

Quickly, he tossed his younger brother towards the boy running towards him. Naruto's eyes widened, and he tried his best to slow down and stop. Unfortunately, he wasn't quick enough. The blond shinobi clumsily crashed into his rival and fell on top of him.

"I'm sorry," Itachi said as he moved past the two of them. "but it would seem that we have to go now."

Then, without another uttered word, he moved to get his partner.

**SwitchSwitchSwitchSwitchSwitch**

Joey and Kisame were now at a standstill with each other. As the blond teen panted heavily, the blue man said, "Well, I amazed at the energy you had, but it seems you're out of steam now."

He didn't bother to respond, but instead shouted to his friend in an exhausted voice, "Hey, Tristan! Is Sakura feeling better yet?"

"I don't know. Let me check," the brunette boy answered. He brought the pink-haired kunouchi to her feet. After seeing that she could steady herself, he told his blond friend, "Yeah! She's all right!"

Then, Sakura added, "Yeah, my wound isn't that deep. I just needed some time to regain my chakra."

"Still have no clue what that is," Joey told her. "but it's good to know that you're okay. Now, let's kick some blue butt!"

"Heh, don't make me laugh," Kisame replied. As he prepared another attack, however, Itachi entered the room to stop their match.

His raven-haired partner said in a calm tone, "Kisame, we've wasted too much time. It's time for us to go."

"But I -"

Itachi gave the blue man a stern look, and Kisame automatically backed off. After a moment's silence, he replied in an almost disappointed tone, ". . . I see."

Then, he turned away from the young kids and ran towards the wall. The rogue mist ninja then used his sword to blast a large hole into the wall. Before anyone could do anything else, Itachi stepped through and disappeared. Kisame moved after his partner, but before leaving, said, "I wish we could finish our fight here, but it seems that we have to rethink our plan. You brats may have gotten lucky this time, but just remember we will come back for Naruto. And when we do, I'll cut down all of you brats, starting with you, blondie!"

With that being said, he left an infuriated Joey behind with Sakura and Tristan. As the blue man ran out through the hole, the blond teen yelled back, "Oh yeah? Well, when you come back, I'll take that sword of yours and shove it right up you're a-"

"Joey!" Sakura yelled before he could finish that crude statement. "You really shouldn't say things like that."

Joey just shrugged and replied, "What? He has it coming."

"Look, as much as you want to insult that guy, he's a lot tougher than we are," Tristan reminded him. "Anyways, we should make sure the others are okay."

Sakura gasped in realization, and she began her way out of the room while saying, "That's right! Sasuke could be hurt badly, not to mention . . ."

The three of them went into silence as they remembered Yugi's scream from before. When that moment got brought back into their memories, they quickly hurried out of the room.

**SwitchSwitchSwitchSwitchSwitch**

For a moment, Naruto stayed in his position on the floor, trying to figure out what had just happened. He knew that Itachi had just left in the last few seconds, but he couldn't figure out why. He just settled for taking some calming breaths first. Suddenly, he heard something from under him.

"Get . . . off . . . of me . . . you IDIOT!!"

The blond was immediately knocked off of Sasuke in one swift movement. Naruto looked up at his rival as the raven-haired boy continued, "Seriously, what's your problem?"

This enraged the blond shinobi, and he immediately sat up and yelled, "What? Are you kidding me?! I just saved your butt, and that's the thanks I get?! Well, if that's how you're gonna act, then don't expect me to do it again!"

"I never asked for your help, Naruto!" Sasuke told him harshly.

Naruto was going to make a comment, but he decided against it. The blond shinobi only got a relieved look on his face and thought, "Oh well. At least Itachi didn't use that weird technique on him again."

"Sasuke! Naruto!"

Both boys turned their heads to see Sakura running towards them, a look of concern on her face. She was shortly followed by Joey and Tristan. As the pink-haired girl approached them, the raven-haired boy deactivated his kekkei genkai, and his eyes turned back to their regular onyx color.

As Sakura kneeled down in front of them, Tristan came up and asked, "Are you guys okay? Itachi didn't do anything too bad, did . . ." the brunette boy did a double take as he looked at Sasuke's face. Then, he finished, "Your eyes are back to normal?"

The young Uchiha heir scowled at him and responded, "Why would I leave them activated?"

Before another comment could be made on that, Naruto answered their earlier question by saying, "Don't worry, guys. We're both okay. What about you, Sakura?"

As Sasuke looked over at her and spotted the cut on her shoulder, she replied, "I'm fine. The cut wasn't deep at all. It should heal in no time. More importantly, what on earth happened to -"

"YUGI!!"

Joey quickly pushed Naruto out of the way, causing the blond shinobi to land sprawled on the floor. Shortly after, Tristan stepped over Naruto and joined his blond friend. When the hyperactive blond processed where they were going, he jolted up and ran after them, yelling, "Hey, guys! Wait up!"

After seeing their friends run off, Sakura turned to her crush and asked, "So, Sasuke, what happened to him?"

For a second, the young Uchiha heir looked over towards where Yugi and his friends were huddled. Then, he answered, "Itachi drove a kunai into his arm."

The pink-haired kunouchi gasped in shock and asked, "Oh my god. Are you sure?"

"Sakura," Sasuke said with a serious tone in his voice. "I watched it happen myself; of course I'm sure."

Quickly, the young girl stood up and said, "That's terrible! We need to get over there and help him however we can! Come on!"

Sakura ran down the hall to their friends. Sasuke soon stood up to follow, but before moving, he thought, "There's one thing I'm not sure about. I saw what happened. Itachi was about to kill Yugi; I could tell, but what made my brother change his mind?"

"Tea, what happened to Yug?" Joey asked as he came up to her. His female friend only ignored him as she gazed with worry at her small friend. The blond teen looked in her direction and saw the crimson coating on his friend's arm. He paled and went silent at the sight.

Tristan came up to him and was about to ask why his friend was looking so grave, but he stopped as he saw the condition Yugi was in. Both of the teenage boys were surprised to see the blood; it was the first physically bad looking injury any of them had received in a long time.

"Guys, what's wrong?" Naruto asked as he went to stand beside them. Soon, however, he followed their stares, and he saw his new friend sporting a blood-soaked arm. It struck him speechless until he finally decided to ask Tea, "Tea, what did Itachi do?"

"I'm not sure myself," the brunette girl said weakly while holding back several tears. "but I'm scared. Yugi's in pain right now and we can't do anything to help him. I don't know what to do!"

Without warning, Tea broke down in front of them and began to weep freely. While Tristan kneeled down to comfort the brunette as best as he could, the two blonds just stood in dumbfounded silence.

Shortly, Sakura came up to them, and when she saw the injury on the tri-colored haired boy and her new female friend sobbing, the pink-haired kunouchi crouched down and said, "Tea, let me take a look at him real quick."

Tea looked at her with a questioning look in her blue eyes and asked, "Sakura, can you . . . ?"

"I can't guarantee anything, Tea," she calmly told her while she pushed past Tristan to get to Yugi. "I'm not a medic, but I can at least tell whether an injury is fatal or not."

"It's probably nothing, though," Sasuke stated as he joined them.

"What makes you say that?" Tristan asked as he stood up. "I'm not sure whether you're aware of this, but his arm is a bloody mess right now."

"Look, you," the raven-haired boy said. "Just because it looks serious, doesn't mean it's fatal. If it was, then Yugi would probably be dead by now."

Tea gasped, and a fearful expression showed on her face. When they saw this, Joey yelled, "Now look what you did, mini-Kaiba! Would you not say things that will freak us out?"

Quickly, Sakura turned to her female friend. The pink-haired kunouchi gave her friend a reassuring smile and said, "Don't worry, Tea. I promise you, he'll be just fine."

The blue-eyed brunette sniveled a little and gave back a weak smile, showing that she was calm now. A few more seconds passed, and after inspecting their small friend, Sakura turned to everyone and said, "It doesn't look too bad. If we take Yugi to a hospital, I think he'll be okay."

The older teens and Naruto all let out relieved breaths at hearing the news. The blond shinobi thought, "That's good. I would've been furious if those jerks killed any of my new friends."

"There's just one thing I want to know," Tristan suddenly said, getting their attention. "Why did Kisame and Itachi just leave without saying anything?"

Joey stated proudly, "It was probably because we tired them out with our skills!"

"If I remember correctly, we didn't land any hits, Joey. Besides, I had to protect you at one point," Sakura said matter-of-factly, making the blond teen depressed at hearing the reality of the issue.

After a brief moment, Sasuke mentioned, "They must have felt someone else coming: someone with more skills than any of us."

"Well, yeah, but who?" Naruto asked.

"Well, here you guys are. I was wondering where you were hiding."

Immediately, Naruto, Joey, and Tristan jumped with surprise. They quickly turned to see a strange man standing there. With some shock and demanding in his voice, the blond teen asked, "Who the heck are you?"

Before they could get an answer, Sakura asked, "Kakashi-sensei! What are you doing here?"

"Wait," Tristan said. "This is the Kakashi-sensei you guys were talking about?"

The older teens took a closer look at this older man. He had grey-haired that was strangely styled, and only his right eye showed that they were an onyx color. He wore a headband just like their ninja friends, but it was worn so that his left eye was covered. The man wore a navy blue ninja outfit with a green vest over it. Lastly, the rest of his face was covered with a navy blue mask.

"Well, they were right about one thing," Tristan thought. "This guy is the weirdest person I've ever seen."

Kakashi answered, "I was sent by the Hokage to find you three. Finding you guys was a lot more difficult than I thought. I even had to summon Pakkun just to know where I could begin to search."

Suddenly, the grey-haired man's single eye spotted the new faces, and after noticing their strange clothing, he said, "I see you have some guests. What have you been up to?"

"We can explain later!" Sakura responded a little too quickly. "Let's just leave! We have to get to the hospital right away!"

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at this, but before he could ask about what had happened, Joey asked, "Wait a second. Who on earth is Pakkun?"

"That would be me," a rough voice said from behind Kakashi. Everyone looked to see a brown pug approach from behind the man. The small dog wore a blue vest and a ninja headband.

The blond teen laughed a little nervously and said, "Heh, that's funny. For a second there, I thought that dog was talking just now."

The dog known as Pakkun walked over to Joey, looked him in the eyes, and said, "I was."

"WHOA!!" Joey yelled in surprise. "You guys have talking dogs?!"

Naruto laughed hard at this and said, "Man, are you trying to tell me that you don't have summon dogs in your universe?"

"Summon dogs?" Tristan asked, wondering what the blond ninja meant.

Kakashi looked at his student strangely and asked, "Universe?"

The hyperactive blond automatically gasped, realizing his slip-up, and Sasuke said, "Way to go. You just blew it, loser."

Naruto growled furiously at his rival, but before he could throw back an insult of some kind, Pakkun began sniffing. Everyone paused and looked at the small pug. He followed the scent, stopping right in front of Tea. Then, Pakkun said, "So, I guess you were the one I was tracking this whole time."

"Um, excuse me?" the brunette girl asked with confusion.

Kakashi explained, "Pakkun, you see, is a ninja hound. He helps track paths left by other ninja. I had to summon him to find you. Pakkun couldn't find the scent of my students, but he was able to pick up on yours after recognizing the scent of Sakura's shampoo."

The younger boys gave her skeptical looks, and Tea replied, "What? After I reached her house last night, I took a shower. Just because we're in a strange place, doesn't mean that I should avoid washing up."

Kakashi sweatdropped and continued, "Well, anyway, we followed her scent for a while, but when we reached the gates leading out of the village, it disappeared. I was about to turn back, but then we had a new source to track. So, now we're here."

"Wait, what was your new source?" Sasuke asked, a little curious.

Their grey-haired sensei gave all of the occupants a serious look and replied, "We had heard . . . a scream."

Everyone got a shocked look on their faces, remembering back to their friend's shriek of pure fear and agony. Seeing this, Kakashi asked, "I assume one of you was the source of the scream?"

"Yeah," Joey answered in a serious tone. "He's the one on the floor with Tea."

Kakashi looked over to the young girl, and his eyes landed on the injured teen. His eye widened slightly as he thought, "This boy . . . he's . . ."

The grey-haired man walked over to Tea, crouched down and asked, "So, what happened here?"

"Please, sir," Tea pleaded the man. "We have to help Yugi! He's in so much pain right now!"

"Take it easy," Kakashi responded calmly. "I'm sure his injury isn't too serious. Otherwise, he wouldn't be alive right now. Am I right?"

The teens went quiet as the comment sank in. Sasuke sported a triumphant smirk to infuriate Joey, and the blond teen muttered, "I get it, I get it. You were right. Stop looking so smug about it, jerk."

"Right," the grey-haired man continued. Then, after looking over Yugi, he said, "Although, he does appear to be in pain. His body needs to be more relaxed in order for us to get him there. Leave this to me, everyone."

Everyone watched Kakashi as he placed a hand on the small boy's shoulder and said, "All right, you can rest easy now, kid. Those rogue ninja are gone now. You have nothing to worry about."

Weakly, Yugi half-opened his amethyst eyes to see the grey-haired man smiling reassuringly (it was kind of hard to tell with his mask on, though). He also saw all of his friends and no sign of Itachi or Kisame anywhere. As his consciousness slipped away, the tri-colored haired boy replied quietly and weakly, ". . . That's . . . a relief . . ."

With that, his eyes closed from exhaustion. Tea had felt her friend's grip on her own hand weaken, and she looked at her friend. After confirming what happened, she said, "He passed out. Why did he pass out?"

"He'll be fine," Kakashi said calmly. "He just lost a lot of blood, that's all. It's not enough blood to be fatal, but it's enough to knock him out for quite a while. The only thing I'm wondering is how he was able to cling on to his consciousness for as long as he did."

As he gathered the small boy into his arms, Naruto asked, "Hey, sensei, how did you know how to get him to relax?"

"I know his type," Kakashi responded. This left everyone a little confused. The grey-haired man stood without saying anything else to the question. Then, he turned to Pakkun and said, "All right, Pakkun. It looks like I'll be able to handle the rest."

The brown pug gave a short nod, and he was gone in a puff of smoke, causing the older teens to go wide-eyed.

"Um, mister Kakashi?" Tea asked.

The masked ninja turned to her and said, "Yes?"

The brunette girl looked down and asked, ". . . . . Thank you so much."

". . . Sure," Kakashi responded. "Sakura, why don't you join me in going to the hospital? I'm sure that Lady Tsunade will want to hear all about this. Also, I can see you have an injury for her to treat."

The pink-haired girl looked at the ground sheepishly and replied, "Mm, right."

"The rest of you can meet up with us later. Then, we can arrange plans on what will happen with our new guests. Come on, Sakura," Kakashi said as he began to head towards the exit with Yugi in tow. The pink-haired kunouchi quickly followed him. Before turning the corner, however, the grey-haired man paused and said, "Oh, and Sasuke?"

The raven-haired boy looked towards his sensei. When he had his attention, Kakashi said, "I'm sure you got into another match with your brother, so I suggest you meet up with us soon."

Sasuke didn't respond. Instead, he glared angrily at the floor, ashamed at his failure at beating Itachi. Shortly after, Kakashi and Sakura both left them to their own thoughts.

While everyone slowly regained their composure, Naruto stood absolutely still, staring at the last place where his sensei had stood. He thought to himself, "Man, it's a good thing Kakashi-sensei found us. If he had even been a minute too late, who knows what could have happened! Maybe, Itachi would have had the time to torture him with -"

"Hey, Naruto."

The blond shinobi looked over at Sasuke and asked, "Yeah, what is it?"

The young Uchiha heir looked at him coldly and said, "The next time that Itachi and I are fighting, stay out of it!"

Naruto could only look at him in surprise. Sasuke's statement also grabbed the older teens' attention. As they all looked at him, the raven-haired boy continued, "Dealing with Itachi is my problem only, so just mind your own business. You'd only get in my way, Naruto."

"What?!" Naruto shouted back angrily. "Are you saying that I should've just done nothing and let Itachi hit you with that jutsu again?"

Sasuke's eyes widened from hearing his blond rival's statement. Meanwhile, the three teens all thought along the lines of "What's that jutsu?"

When Naruto received no response, he continued, "I'm not sure what exactly happened when he used that jutsu on you, but do you really think I wanted your brother to do that again? After all, it's me he wants, and despite what you and I want to believe, we're comrades. I wouldn't want something terrible to happen to you or Sakura because of me. Plus, do you have any idea how she would've felt if she had heard you screaming like that? She'd probably be devastated!"

The older teens looked between the two shinobi, trying to understand what was being said. Finally, after a long, unnerving silence, the raven-haired boy turned away from them and began to exit the area.

"Hey, where are you going?" Tristan asked.

As he walked out of sight, Sasuke replied in a cold tone, "I'm going to the hospital."

And with that, he was gone. For a while, everyone stayed in silence with thoughtful expressions on their faces. Then, Tea stood, faced Naruto, and asked, "Naruto, what jutsu were you and Sasuke talking about?"

Naruto slowly turned to her and said solemnly, "Tea, its better if none of you know."

Joey scowled in disapproval and thought, "Why is it such a big deal? If this technique was strong enough to cause a guy like Sasuke to scream, then I want to know about it!"

After a few calming breaths were taken, the hyperactive blond said in a happier mood, "Let's get out of here, guys."

"Where are we going?" Tristan asked.

Naruto replied, "I don't know. I guess we could have lunch at Ichiraku's first, and then we'll head to the hospital to check on Yugi."

Before the older teens could argue and say that they wanted to go to the hospital right away, all of their stomachs began to growl. Hearing this, the blond shinobi chuckled and said, "Well, I guess that's that, then. We head out for lunch first!"

As they all began to leave, Tea thought to herself, "It looks like things are turning out for the better, but for some reason, I have the feeling that we're forgetting something."

So, the four of them left the battlefield now that their morning crisis was over. Little did they realize that something had been forgotten. Lying on the ground by a small puddle of blood was a powerful object known as the Millennium Puzzle.

**SwitchSwitchSwitchSwitchSwitch**

**Naruto: Man, what do we do now? Those guys are gone now, but what's going to happen? The entire village is going to know that Yugi and his friends are here now, and when they do, they'll be swarmed! Not to mention, it's all going to happen because of me. What's going to be in store for everyone.**

**Next time-Strange Faces and New Friends!****

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See? Didn't I say it was a let down? I have to make sure things are more lively next chappie. And before I get complaints about description, twist info, and in or out of character-ness, I already know this isn't my best. I REALLY don't want to hear it! Oh, and here's a spoiler about next chappie; the one character that inspired me to make this thing shows up. The one and only Hinata! Anyhoo, if any of you have a DA account, visit mine and comment my journal. I'm wondering if I should make a NarutoxYugioh crossover club, so I need comments saying whether I should or not. Well, this is AnimeSnowflake, bidding you adieu. **

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**What? Were you guys expecting me to say "Review please?" Well, not this time! I won't bug you guys about it this time around. So, have a nice morning/afternoon/evening!**


	6. Strange Faces and New Friends

**Hi, peeps! After much long waiting, I've finally got Chapter 6 ready for reading! For this chapter, I give a special dedication to the Naruto fanbook, for without it, I wouldn't have been able to get some of the information for this chapter. Now, one of the last reviewers said that she was hoping for NaruHina, and that brought up a very important topic to my mind: pairings. Now, I'll explain what I plan on doing about that after the chapter is done, so if you want an explanation, stick around. Plus, I've got other interesting news relating to the type of crossover this is at the end of the chappie. Before I bore you guys anymore, here's the chappie!**

**Disclaimer: How many more times must I repeat? I don't own either of these two godly animes!

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**Strange Faces and New Friends**

Things were calm and serene in the streets of the hidden leaf village. The villagers walked by happily going through their days. One of these people in particular happened to be a girl by the name of Hinata Hyuuga.

A small smile graced her lips while she walked, and the shy girl thought, "It's a good thing that we finished our missions so quickly today. Maybe, with any luck, I'll be able to find Naruto today and tell him my feelings."

Merely thinking of her crush made the indigo haired girl blush a light shade of pink. It left as quickly as it came, however, when she spotted a crowd gathering in front of her. The people seemed to be circling someone. Curious about what was going on, Hinata went to the edge of the crowd to try and get some answers. Suddenly, out of the crowd emerged Sakura. The pink haired kunouchi looked out of breath and slumped forward from exhaustion.

Slowly, Hinata approached her and asked, "Sakura, are you all right?"

The pink haired girl straightened her posture, and in between her pants, she said, "Hi, Hinata. Yeah, I'm fine. Kakashi-sensei and I are just trying to meet with Lady Hokage right now."

Before Hinata could respond, Sakura turned towards the crowd and shouted, "Kakashi-sensei, come on!"

When Sakura had turned, the young Hyuuga saw the cut in Sakura's clothes. Timidly, she asked, "Sakura, how did you . . ."

"How did I what?" Sakura asked her. The pink haired girl followed Hinata's gaze, and understanding, she said, "Oh, you mean what happened to my back. It's nothing. It's actually one of the reasons why Kakashi-sensei and I are taking this person to the hospital."

Hinata looked at her in confusion and asked, "Who are you talking about Sakura?"

Sakura recognized her slip up and thought, "Oh, darn it! I can't tell Hinata the entire truth of the situation. I guess it wouldn't hurt if I told her a little bit."

"Oh, he's new to the Leaf Village," Sakura told her. "We need the Hokage to tell us if he can be trusted here."

Once again, she turned around and yelled, "Hurry up, Kakashi-sensei!"

Although Hinata was slightly curious about this new guest, she decided to stray away from that subject and asked, "Do you know where I could find Naruto?"

Sakura turned back to her and responded, "I'm not sure, Hinata. Last time I saw him was over by the abandoned training building in that direction," she pointed in the direction where she came from. "I wouldn't expect to find him there, though. Naruto probably already left by now."

"Oh," Hinata said, a little disappointed. "Thanks."

"No problem," the pink haired kunouchi replied. After a few more seconds passed, Sakura groaned and yelled, "Kakas--"

"I know!" her sensei shouted from within the crowd. "I heard you the first two times, Sakura!"

Hinata noticed the tuft of grey hair sticking out of the crowd and wondered what the problem was. As the two girls waited, they heard Kakashi try to reconcile with the villagers; from what Hinata heard, they were curious about who or what he was carrying. Eventually, the grey haired man gave up trying to talk his way out, so he jumped out of the crowd, landing nimbly before the two girls.

"Let's go, Sakura!" Kakashi shouted as he broke into a dash.

"Right!" the pink haired girl replied as she began to run after him. While she ran after her sensei, she said quickly, "Sorry, Hinata! Gotta go! Nice talking with you!"

All the young Hyuuga did was stare after them. Earlier, the young girl had managed to catch a glimpse of what Kakashi was carrying, and she had seen that it was a boy with hair of three different colors and an arm soaked in blood.

"Who was that?" Hinata thought to herself while the villagers cleared out of the streets. ". . . . . Oh, well. I hope he'll be okay, whoever he is."

Then, she headed off in the direction that Sakura had shown her, hoping to find her blond crush.

**SceneChangeSceneChangeSceneChangeSceneChangeSceneChange**

"What now?" Hinata thought, now standing outside of the training building where Naruto was last seen. "Should I go in there and look for him or wait out here for a little bit? I wish I knew if he was in there . . ."

Suddenly an idea came across her mind. The young Hyuuga gathered a small bit of chakra and activated her Byakugan. Her eyes inspected inside the building to look for any sign of a person. After a few seconds, she thought with disappointment, "Oh, Naruto's not here. I guess Sakura was right. I'll just go and . . . . . Hm?"

Her unique eyes had just spotted a strange chakra source in the building. Instead of the normal blue, the color was a golden yellow. Curiosity getting the better of her, Hinata went inside to find out what this unique chakra was and where it was coming from. The chakra became brighter with every step she was taking towards it. Eventually, she had to deactivate her Byakugan when she reached a turn in the hallway.

Cautiously, Hinata peeked into the hallway, but what she found was not a creature or a weapon: just a golden pendant attached to a silver chain. It rested by a small puddle of blood. This confused the indigo haired girl, and she walked over to where the object was. Upon approaching it, Hinata saw that the pendant was in the shape of an upside down pyramid and made of smaller gold objects.

As she picked up the pendant and noticed the strange eye on one of the faces of the pyramid, she thought, "How strange. How could an object this small have such a powerful chakra source, and why can I only feel a small portion of it without the Byakugan?"

She looked over to the side and noticed a navy blue jacket pinned to the wall by shuriken. Wondering what a jacket was doing there, she took out the shuriken and allowed the jacket to fall to the ground. Hinata bent over to pick it up and noticed a small, brown wallet sticking out of one of the pockets.

" . . . . . Perhaps I should look for an I.D.," the Hyuuga girl thought as she reached for the wallet. "Maybe I can find the person who left this here."

She opened the wallet and found an I.D. card with a picture of a young boy. He wore the jacket and the pendant, and he also had innocent, childlike, amethyst eyes. Hinata then read aloud, "Yugi Muto . . . . . Hm, I don't know who this is at all. How can I return these to him?"

She looked over the picture once more, and she looked surprised at what she noticed about this boy. He had hair that was magenta, black, and with yellow bangs: just like the boy that Kakashi was carrying to the hospital! After seeing this, an idea began to form in the indigo haired kunouchi's mind. . . . .

**SceneChangeSceneChangeSceneChangeSceneChangeSceneChange**

Tsunade and her assistant, Shizune, were waiting for Kakashi to arrive at the hospital. They stood in the front lobby with some other medics there as well, just in case.

"Do you think Kakashi found them in time, Lady Tsunade?" Shizune asked, being a little afraid of what might have happened.

The blond woman just turned her hard gaze to the doors leading inside of the hospital and answered, "Let's hope so."

Shortly after saying this, Sakura burst through the hospital doors with her sensei following closely behind her. The rest of the room's occupants perked up and moved quickly towards them. Shizune asked, "Kakashi, is everybody all right? What happened?"

"Don't worry," the grey haired man told them in a calm yet serious tone. "I arrived before they could take off with Naruto. As for everyone's conditions, most of the injuries were very minor. Sakura has a cut across her back for you to look at, and I told Sasuke to meet us here seeing as he had gotten bruised pretty badly against Itachi. The most serious injury was inflicted on . . . well, him."

He stepped forward and showed the medics the small boy in his arms. For a moment, they all looked at the boy curiously, not recognizing him at all. Then, Tsunade addressed the medics and said, "Get a stretcher for this boy. One of you, find some bandages."

They all said a "Yes, ma'am," at different intervals, and they quickly left, leaving Tsunade and her assistant with the three visitors. Then, she and Shizune approached them to get a closer look at this boy. He had three different hair colors, his arm had a wound that had spilt plenty of blood, and the poor boy looked absolutely exhausted.

As Shizune brushed back his blond bangs, Tsunade asked, "Kakashi, who is this boy?"

"I'm not really sure of that myself," the grey haired man said after a moment. "When I found my squad, he was there along with three other strangers."

"Hm, I see," the blond woman replied. She turned to the pink haired kunouchi and asked, "Can you shed any light on this, Sakura?"

Sakura nervously answered, "Well, it's a little difficult to explain it all at once. You see, it's a really long story."

"All right," Shizune said. "That's fine, but could you at least give us his name?"

"Oh, yeah," Sakura said, but before she could say anything, someone else answered for her.

"His name is Yugi Muto, and he, along with his friends, Joey, Tea, and Tristan, were summoned by Naruto."

The four of them turned their heads to see Sasuke enter the hospital. While Kakashi and Sakura gave their greetings to him, Tsunade thought, "I wonder what he means by 'summoned'."

At this moment, one of the medics came back and said, "Lady Hokage, I got the bandages you asked for."

"Thanks," she responded as she took the bandages from him.

Shortly after getting the bandages, two more medics came with a stretcher. Then, Kakashi and Tsunade worked together on placing Yugi down onto it. After this, Tsunade tossed the bandages gently over to Shizune and said, "Shizune, make sure to clean up his wound, and get him in one of the hospital rooms to rest. I'll check on him after taking care of things here."

"Yes, milady," the young woman responded. With that being said, Shizune and the medics went down the hallway with the small boy in tow.

Next, Tsunade addressed the three shinobi and said, "Let's head someplace private. You can give me your report there, Kakashi. Then, I'll look at everyone's injuries, and your students can tell me what they've been up to lately."

The three of them nodded silently, and they quickly left the lobby to discuss things.

**SceneChangeSceneChangeSceneChangeSceneChangeSceneChange**

It was about noon when Hinata finally reached her destination: the Yamanaka Flower Shop. Earlier, the indigo haired girl decided that she would go to the hospital. She wanted to return these items to the small boy after all. After putting his items into her backpack, Hinata realized that she should probably get something for him since he was recovering at the hospital. So, this led her to the flower shop before her.

After a moment, she took a step inside. Noticing the flowers on the side, she went over there and began looking for the right flower.

"Hey, Hinata. What brings you here?" a certain blond kunouchi asked from behind the counter.

Hinata turned to face her and said, "Oh, hi, Ino. I just wanted to get a flower for someone at the hospital."

"Really?" Ino said as she stepped from behind the counter to join the young Hyuuga. "Who's stuck in the hospital? Is it Kiba?"

Hinata shook her head and said, "No, Kiba's fine."

"Then, is it someone from the Hyuuga clan?"

"No, it's not a Hyuuga either."

Ino took a moment to think about who else it could be. As an idea came across her mind, the blond kunouchi sported a sly grin and said, "Oh, I get it. It's Naruto you're going to see, isn't it?"

Hinata's face blushed a deep shade of red, and the young girl stammered, "W-w-w-what?"

Ino giggled and continued, "It's obvious you have a crush on him; anyone can see that! You should just tell him already!"

The young Hyuuga reverted to her habit of pushing her two index fingers together, and after a moment, she responded, "M-maybe, but I need to go to the hospital first."

"Wait. It's not Naruto you're going to see?" Ino asked, slightly surprised. "Then, who is it you're going to see?"

"I'm . . . not sure myself," Hinata responded quietly. The blond kunouchi gave her a quizzical look, and the shy girl explained, "Sakura said he was a guest to the leaf village, and I think I found something that belongs to him. The last time I saw this boy, he was being rushed to the hospital."

Realizing something, Ino said, "Wait, I think I remember hearing some gossip from the villagers about a boy with strange hair being spotted in the village. Is this who you're talking about?"

The indigo haired girl responded with a silent nod. Coming to a decision in her mind, Ino left the room to find her mother. In a matter of seconds, she came back with a smile on her face. She told Hinata, "All right, I'm coming with you!"

The young Hyuuga looked at her dumbfounded, and the blond girl explained, "I'm curious about this boy. I want to know how he could cause such a commotion in the village, and if you're going to see him, then I wanna come, too!"

Hinata chose not to object to this, so instead, she asked, "What flower should I get for him, though?"

"I got it!" Ino proclaimed. She pulled out a white flower, handed it to her, and said, "It's a sweet pea. It symbolizes delicacy and gentleness: a great flower for making him feel welcome."

Hinata looked at the flower and smiled, thinking that it was perfect. Suddenly, something came across her mind, and the shy girl asked, ". . . Delicacy?"

"Well, sure!" Ino said with a mischievous grin. "You need to open yourself up to the other guys in this village. I mean, you have to admit that Naruto can be a real moron sometimes."

As they left the shop and entered the streets, Hinata blushed slightly and said, "That's not true, Ino. I know he makes a few mistakes sometimes, but I think Naruto is a very wonderful person."

**SceneChangeSceneChangeSceneChangeSceneChangeSceneChange**

Elsewhere, at his favorite ramen stand, Naruto sneezed loudly in his stool. Joey, who was seated to his right, asked, "Hey, are you okay? You're not getting a cold, are ya?"

"What? Heck no," the blond boy responded. "I never get colds."

"Really?" Tea asked from Naruto's left. "Then, what else could it be?"

The woman working behind the counter, Ayame, suggested, "Well, maybe someone's talking about him."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Tristan asked from Joey's other side.

"Oh, it's something we've heard before," Naruto explained. "Apparently, if someone's talking about you somewhere, you end up sneezing."

"That's weird," Joey said, not really believing what his ninja friend said.

Soon, the old man who owned the Ichiraku Ramen stand, Teuchi, came up and handed everyone their bowls of ramen, saying, "Well, here you go. Enjoy!"

Naruto eyed his miso ramen with a lustful look in his eyes. As he drooled, the hyperactive boy said excitedly, "Oh boy! This looks delicious!"

"I'll say!" Joey exclaimed with an equal amount of excitement as he eyed his own bowl of barbecue pork ramen.

Tea and Tristan just took their two bowls in silence. In unison, the two blonds took their chopsticks and exclaimed, "Down the hatch!"

Then, they both slurped down their ramen with great speed. Seeing this, Tea scolded, "Slow down, guys! You'll end up choking on your food at that rate!"

"Forget it, Tea," Tristan told her as he began eating his own meal. "I think once these two go on an eating frenzy, nothing can stop them."

The young brunette had nothing to say to this, so she just began to eat her food while thinking, "I really need to get some more female friends."

"It's great to see that you've made some new friends, Naruto," the owner said after a while. "By the way, how's your squad these days?"

"Oh, they're doing well," the blond shinobi said with some noodles hanging out of his mouth. "They're actually at the hospital right now."

"Oh my!" Ayame said in response. "Are they all right?"

"Yeah," Naruto told her. "They're fine. I'm not too sure about Yugi, though."

"Yugi? Who's he?" the ramen owner asked.

Tristan set aside his completed bowl and said, "Oh, he's our other friend. He's not here right now because his arm got hurt real badly. We're planning on seeing him at the hospital after lunch."

"By the way, this ramen is awesome!" Joey said loudly with noodles dangling out of his mouth.

"Well, thank you," Teuchi answered. "To tell the truth, I never expected to find someone who loves ramen as much as Naruto."

"Oh, it's not just ramen," Tristan said in a teasing tone. "Joey loves any edible object in sight."

"Oh, is that right?" Joey asked, daring him to say anything else. "Where's your proof?"

"Oh, please. Don't make me bring up all those times that we went to those all you can eat buffets."

"You're supposed to stuff your face at those places! Besides, I'm not the only one with a bottomless pit for a stomach!"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that . . ."

The two teenage boys continued to argue, but Naruto only tuned them out as he slurped down the remains of his dish. He set down his now empty bowl and looked at it with a feeling of guilt in his eyes. He had just remembered what he made Yugi say in their last real conversation. . .

"_He's NOT a demon!"_

"_Huh?" Naruto asked, confused at Yugi's sudden temper._

_The tri-colored haired boy continued saying angrily, "Yami is NOT an evil spirit! The only reason we're not completely sure is because he lost his memories from five thousand years ago, but when he gets them back, we'll know he was a good pharaoh the whole time! He is NOT EVIL!!"_

". . . It's probably my fault," the blond shinobi thought with remorse. "I shouldn't have assumed that the spirit inside the Millennium Puzzle was an evil one. I didn't even understand half of the stuff he said, but if I didn't make him so mad, Yugi wouldn't have blurted all of that out to me. Then, maybe, Itachi wouldn't have been able to hurt him in the first place."

"Naruto, are you okay?"

The blond boy looked over at Tea, who had just placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. When he didn't respond, the blue-eyed girl asked, "Is something wrong? You look a little upset."

Naruto put a smile back onto his face. Then, he responded cheerfully, "Oh, I'm fine, Tea! Just a little tired from today I guess. Being a ninja takes a lot out of ya, y'know?"

In Tea's thoughts, she had a feeling that he wasn't telling her the entire truth of the situation. However, she decided not to push the matter and smiled back, saying, "That's good."

The rest of their lunch went by without much happening, and after saying their thanks to Teuchi and Ayame, the four of them were off to the hospital.

**SceneChangeSceneChangeSceneChangeSceneChangeSceneChange**

"Huh? What do you mean 'No visitors'?" Ino asked the person behind the counter.

Ino and Hinata were now in the front lobby of the hospital, talking to the female attendant behind the counter. Strangely enough, when they gave their description of who they wanted to visit, the two kunouchi were automatically denied their request.

The young woman told them once again, "I'm sorry, but we're not allowing anyone to see him at the moment."

"Oh, come on!" the blond kunouchi yelled. "You have to let us see him! We found some of his things, and we want to return them now!"

"Look, I know you both have your reasons, but we just won't allow it," the employee pressed on.

Before she could shoo the two of them out of the lobby, a young male medic in his mid-20s came up and said, "Oh, it's all right. You can let them through. He won't be kept away from the villagers forever."

While the female employee gave him a look of disbelief, Ino gave him a happy look and asked, "Really? It's okay?"

"Yes, ma'am," he said warmly, giving her a friendly smile. "If you want to see him, what you want to do is take a left down that hallway, go right, and then, his room should be 7th to your left."

"Thank you so much!" the blond girl cheerfully said.

Before anything else could be done, she took Hinata down the hall, and they made their way to the strange boy's room.

After taking their first turn, Hinata said quietly, "I wonder why she didn't want us to see him . . ."

"I don't know, and quite frankly, I don't care," Ino said in annoyance. "That girl was being way too bossy!"

The shy girl decided not to comment on this, and they continued walking. Hinata looked at the flower in her hand and thought, "I hope I'm doing the right thing by seeing this Yugi. I wonder what kind of a person he is . . ."

"5 . . . 6 . . . and 7," Ino proclaimed as she began counting the doors to the left. As they faced the door, Ino said, "I guess this is his room. Let's go, Hinata."

After a slight pause, the blond kunouchi turned the knob, opened the door slightly, and peeked in.

"Hello?" Ino said quietly into the room. She only received silence. "Hello? Is anybody in there?"

After she realized that she wouldn't be getting a response any time soon, Ino opened the door all the way, and she and Hinata stepped inside. The room had barely anything in it. The room had the same white color in it that the others had. There was a window on the far wall that was slightly opened, and a bed was propped up next to the wall. The only other objects in the room were an end table by the bed with a vase on it and a chair in the corner of the room.

None of these objects caught the two girls' eyes, though. What caught their attention was the boy lying in the bed. He lay asleep under the sheets, taking slow, steady breaths. The sun shined through the window, making the blond bangs stand out more than anything else.

They were both awed by his appearance. As Hinata grabbed the chair and brought it over to the bedside, Ino exclaimed, "Whoa! I can see why the villagers were talking about him so much. Just look at that hair!"

As Ino continued to express her amazement, the indigo haired girl sat next to the bed in silence. As she put the sweet pea she got for him in the vase, Hinata took another look at his hairstyle and thought, "I guess his hair is different. I wonder if it came out that way naturally."

She watched his peaceful face as the wind blew the blond bangs across his face. Smiling softly, Hinata brushed the bangs away from the small boy's face. This caused the young boy to stir, and Hinata automatically pulled her hand back.

"Huh? What's wrong?" Ino asked when she looked over at the shy Hyuuga girl. Then, the blond kunouchi turned to the boy in the bed. When she saw him stirring, she said, "Oh, he's waking up."

Becoming nervous, the indigo haired girl began getting out of the chair. However, as she tried to leave, Ino brought her back to the bedside and said, "Oh, no you don't! I told you that you have to open up to people, Hinata; now's not the time to get nervous!"

Hinata bit her lower lip out of nervousness, yet she didn't move away. Like Ino, the young Hyuuga girl wanted to know more about this stranger. As the small boy opened his eyes slowly, both girls were taken by surprised when they saw the unique color and expressiveness within them.

Meanwhile, as Yugi opened his eyes, he had a blurred vision of the room that he found himself in. He was able to make out two figures standing beside him. One of the figures had short hair. Mistaking the person for a familiar brunette, the small boy turned his head and asked tiredly, "Tea, what happened?"

"Tea? Who's Tea?" The second figure asked.

This confused the small boy greatly. Quickly, he focused his vision, and his eyes widened in surprise from seeing two strange girls beside him. The one he had mistaken for Tea had short, indigo colored hair and soft, lavender eyes. She wore a headband similar to the other shinobi that he had met, only hers was worn around her neck. She also wore a tan colored jacket. The second girl had bleach-blond hair styled in a ponytail and light blue eyes. She wore purple clothes and a headband across her waist.

For a moment, there was an awkward silence. Finally, Yugi sat up and observed the room he was in while asking, "Who are you guys, and where am I?"

"You're at the hospital," the blond girl answered calmly. "Apparently, something happened to your arm."

While she let him take in this little bit of information, the small boy thought, "Wait. My arm?"

He looked at his arms, and he noticed the bandages decorating his left arm. As Yugi gently grabbed the injured arm, he closed his eyes, trying to remember what had happened before he fell unconscious. Suddenly, his eyes shot open as he remembered what had happened that morning . . .

"_. . . you'll have to pay for that 'coward' comment earlier."_

_Yugi stared at Itachi in surprise. After spotting the kunai he held, the small boy tried to squirm out of his hold. Suddenly, though, he felt pain shoot right up his arm, and the tri-color haired boy looked to see the kunai lodged into his arm, blood gushing out. He took a few gasping breaths and screamed in shock and pain._

"_GYAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!"_

". . . That's right," the tri-color haired boy thought calmly. "Itachi had put that knife in my arm before trying to take me. Then, Tea showed up, and somehow, Itachi was forced to leave. I guess whoever that grey haired man from earlier was took me here."

"Anyways, it's good to know that you're okay," the blond girl said happily. "By the way, my name's Ino Yamanaka."

He looked over to the blond girl, smiled softly, and said, "It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Yugi Muto."

"Hm, that's an interesting name," Ino said as she observed Yugi's physical appearance. After a moment, she finally said, "I like the shirt; it fits you quite nicely."

For a brief moment, Yugi looked down and saw that his jacket was missing. Before he could respond, the small boy realized that something else was missing. After figuring out what was gone, he was put into a panic, and he began to tear apart the bed while asking himself, "Where is it? Where is it!?"

"Where's what?" Ino asked in confusion.

"My puzzle!" Yugi nearly yelled in response. "It's my most prized possession! Why isn't it here!?"

Suddenly, the tri-color haired boy remembered when Itachi had carelessly tossed his pendant aside. He thought, "The training building! It must still be there! I have to go get it back!"

He began to push himself off of the hospital bed, but the blond kunouchi was quick in holding him back. As Yugi tried to get her off, Ino said, "Hold on! Where do you think you're going? If you leave without saying anything, the medics are gonna go ballistic!"

"Please!" Yugi pleaded with her. "You have to let me find it! The puzzle was a gift from my grandpa; and if I ever lost it . . ."

"Um, e-excuse me, but . . ."

The two of them turned their heads to the soft voice. They saw the indigo haired girl rummaging through her bag. As she reached for an object, she asked, ". . . is this w-what you're looking for?"

Yugi sighed with relief as she pulled out the Millennium Puzzle. As he nodded, the small boy asked, "How did you find it?"

After handing the pendant over to the small boy, the young girl began pressing her two index fingers together and said, "W-well, I was over at the training building, looking for Na. . ." she stopped herself and began to blush lightly. After turning her gaze to the ground, she continued, ". . . looking for someone I care about. I couldn't find them, but I-I found that . . . um, puzzle, as you called it earlier. Oh, and I also found this."

The indigo haired girl pulled out a navy blue jacket from her bag. She handed it to Yugi while saying, "I-I'm sorry, but I couldn't help but look in the pockets for an ID card. I recognized your face, s-so I just wanted to give these things back to you."

"Oh, it's no problem," Yugi responded as he put the Millennium Puzzle around his neck and draped his jacket over his shoulders. Then, he looked towards her and said, "Thank you. What's your name?"

The shy girl gazed into his amethyst eyes. She quickly gave a small bow and replied, "Hinata Hyuuga."

Yugi smiled softly at this and said, "Hinata, that's a very nice name."

As Hinata smiled softly from the compliment, the small boy turned to Ino and asked, "So, do you guys know Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto by any chance?"

Ino hesitated a little; sure, she knew them, but she wasn't exactly on the best terms with the group of shinobi. After carefully picking her words, the blond kunouchi responded, "Well, you could say that."

Suddenly, the three of them heard footsteps from outside the room followed by voices.

"Are you sure he's okay?"

"Urgh! Will you stop it already!? The doctor's already told us that Yugi's just fine, so stop asking!"

Then, the door swung open, and Sakura froze at the doorway. She looked into the room and spotted the extra people in the room. As soon as her eyes managed to spot Ino, the pink haired girl pointed at her and shouted, "What are you doing here, Ino Pig!?"

Ino became defensive at this and said in response, "Is it any of your business, Billboard Brow?"

Sakura put on a frown at her "nickname" and stepped into the room with others following from behind. The first to follow her was Tea, who said, "We're just a little curious; that's all."

As a brunette teen followed her into the room, Ino asked, "Hey, who's she?"

While the blond kunouchi said this, the next to enter the room was Naruto. When Hinata spotted him, the shy girl blushed a deep red and looked towards the ground. The blond shinobi was followed in by Sasuke and an older blond teen, who shut the door behind them. As soon as her eyes came across everyone else, Ino automatically brightened up and ran towards the group with a big smile.

Noticing this movement, the pink haired kunouchi glared at her while saying in an angered tone, "Ino, back off! You're not getting anywhere near Sas--"

The blond girl, oddly enough, went past the raven haired boy. When Sakura saw who she ran to instead, her eyes settled for a look of confusion. Everyone else stared curiously as Ino wrapped her arms around the blond teen.

While sporting an admiring look, Ino asked him, "Are you new to the village as well?"

"Uh, yeah," he answered nervously as the young girl wrapped her arms around his shoulders. "I guess you could say that."

Ino batted her eyes in an affectionate way and said, "Well, my name's Ino. And you are?"

"Oh, I'm . . . Jo. . ." the blond teen cleared his throat to lose the nervousness in his voice. Then, he finished, "Joseph Wheeler, but my friends call me Joey."

"Hm," Ino thought aloud while releasing her grip around him. "Joseph, I like it. Suits a handsome looking man like you."

At this comment, Joey got a light blush of pink on his face and laughed nervously. Meanwhile, Naruto and Tristan began snickering, finding this to be quite amusing. As they did this, Tea asked her new female friend, "Sakura, does Ino normally act like this?"

"Sadly yes," the pink haired kunouchi replied with a sigh. "But normally, she's flirting with Sasuke. Right now, I'd probably be annoyed if she was flirting with him instead of Joey."

Tea looked towards her blond friend, and after seeing his flustered face, she said, "Well, I think Joey's a little uncomfortable with this. Do you think we should stop her?"

Sakura thought for a moment, and after a while, she said, "I'm not sure. This might not necessarily be a bad thing."

Meanwhile, Inner Sakura cheered, "Keep it up, Ino! That way, Sasuke can be all mine!!"

"So, Joseph, do you have a girlfriend?" Ino asked curiously while stroking his chest with her finger.

Before the blond teen could respond, Tea broke the two apart and said hastily, "Yes! Yes he does! Now, if you don't mind, stop flirting with our friend!"

"Well, you don't have to be rude about it!" Ino snapped back at the brunette.

Suddenly, Hinata asked with curiosity, "Oh, a-are you Tea?"

Everyone turned their attention to the shy girl, and Tea nodded and responded, "Yeah, but how do you know my name?"

Deciding to join in this conversation, Ino said, "Oh, well, when your little buddy here woke up, he kinda mistook Hinata for you."

"Oh," the blue eyed girl responded.

Meanwhile, Naruto stepped forward and said, "Hey, Hinata! What brings you here?"

The young Hyuuga girl's face flushed a bright pink, and she stammered, "N-N-N-Naruto! W-W-Well, I . . . um . . . . . mm. . . . ."

She turned away from him shyly, a small smile gracing her lips, while the confused shinobi thought, "There goes Hinata: acting all weird again."

Meanwhile, Yugi had noticed Hinata's actions, and he couldn't help but smile to himself. He had a feeling that the young girl had strong feelings for Naruto.

Ino decided to respond to Naruto's earlier question and said, "Well, Hinata's the reason I came here in the first place. Apparently, she had found some of Yugi's things and wanted to return them."

The new occupants gave her quizzical looks while Naruto asked, "But what did we forget?"

The first to figure it out was Joey, and his face filled with shock as he exclaimed, "Oh yeah! We forgot the puzzle!"

He was about to run straight out the door before Yugi said, "It's all right, Joey. Hinata brought it back here already."

". . . Oh," the blond teen said after a while, getting back into a calm state.

"How did you get a hold of that puzzle anyways?" Tristan suddenly asked, a little suspicious.

However, Sakura answered instead and said, "Oh, I think I told her where we were earlier. You see, she was looking for . . . uh," she hesitated as she glanced at her blond teammate. Then, to stray away from the topic and spare Hinata the attention, she went towards the bed and said, "Anyways, let's just say she was looking for someone and leave it at that. So, Yugi, how do you feel right now?"

The small boy faced her and replied, "Well, besides the numb feeling in my arm right now, I feel fine. Thanks for asking."

"So, wait. What happened to get Yugi in the hospital anyways?" Ino asked, becoming curious about his injury now.

An awkward silence filled the room as everyone wondered whether or not they could explain what had happened that morning to the two girls. Sasuke was thinking of a way to hide the truth from the two kunouchi, but before anyone could speak, a yelp of surprise came from Tristan.

While everyone snapped their attention towards the brunette boy, Yugi asked, "Tristan, what is it?"

"Something just nuzzled my leg!" he exclaimed in surprise.

Joey stared at him strangely and said, "Dude, I think you're losing it. No one's in here but us. Besides, what kind of thing would come in here and -- Yipes!"

Everyone one looked at him due to his outburst, and Ino asked, "Joseph, what happened?"

"I don't think he's crazy now," the blond teen answered. "Whatever nuzzled him just nuzzled me!"

"But what is it?" Yugi asked curiously.

Before anyone could answer, Tea let out a small shriek. As everyone snapped their gaze towards her, she looked down to see what had nuzzled her leg. What she saw gave her a brief look of surprise before she chuckled slightly.

"What is it, Tea?" Sakura asked.

The brunette bent down. Then, as she stood back up, the brunette girl asked, "Is this what you were all so freaked out by?"

Everyone was slightly taken aback at what she carried in her arms. In her arms was a small pig wearing a maroon jacket and a white beaded necklace. The older boys sweatdropped while Joey asked, "Eh? A pig in clothes?"

"I know," Tea said with a smile. "Isn't it adorable?"

"I see you like Tonton."

Everyone turned their gaze towards the doorway. Standing there was a woman with short, brown hair and really dark brown eyes. She wore purple robes and was carrying a clipboard.

Tea looked back at the pig in her arms and asked, "So, his name is Tonton?"

As the woman stepped into the room and took Tonton into her arms, she said, "Yes. You and the other two gentlemen must be Yugi's friends, Tea, Tristan and Joey, right?"

For a moment, the older teens were shocked at the fact that she knew their names. Then, they nodded silently in response to her question.

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you," the woman said politely. "My name's Shizune. You've already met Tonton."

The small pig oinked as if he was saying hello to them. As she walked over to the bedside, Ino asked, "Hey, how did you know their names?"

"Oh, the Hokage wanted to know about our new guests, so Sakura and Sasuke told her about them," Shizune replied calmly while placing Tonton down onto Yugi's bed. While she filled out some things on her clipboard, the small pig went over to Yugi and nuzzled his cheek, resulting in him chuckling a little.

"So, you must be in charge of the hospital," Tristan said to Shizune, not seeing any type of uniform on her. "Is Yugi gonna be all right?"

While Sakura rolled her eyes at hearing them ask about that again, Shizune replied, "Yes, his arm should be better in no time. "I'm not the one in charge, though. I'm more like the head assistant around here."

"Oh, then who's your boss?" Tristan asked with confusion on his face.

"Wait, you seriously don't know?" Ino asked incredulously. After seeing the brunette boy shake his head, the blonde kunouchi said, "You're really out of the loop! I bet you know who she is, right, Joseph?"

Once again, the blond teen had Ino's eyes set on him. Joey was a little nervous from her admiring stare, but not wanting to look like a fool in front of everyone, he said, "Uh, yeah. Yeah! Of course I do! Her name is . . . uh . . ."

Suddenly, there came a loud squeal, and Tonton jumped into Shizune's lap, trembling. Surprised by this, Shizune asked, "Tonton, what's wrong?"

Hinata looked over at Yugi who seemed pretty dumbfounded himself, and she asked, "Y-Yugi, what happened?"

Hearing her question caused everyone to turn their attention to the small boy. Feeling a little awkward, Yugi fiddled with his bangs and replied, "Oh, uh, I don't know. I was just letting him wander on my bed. Then, he came across the puzzle, sniffed it, and . . . well, then that happened."

"Really?" Shizune wondered aloud, curious as to why that would happen.

Hinata, like some of the people there, were curious about this, and the shy girl thought, "I wonder. . . Did Tonton sense that strange chakra energy that I found with my Byakugan?"

Meanwhile, Sasuke's own suspicions about the puzzle heightened. Ha was about to ask once more about the object's hidden powers, but he was stopped by a knock at the door of the room. A voice came through asking, "Shizune, may I come in?"

"Oh, she's here!" Shizune said half to the teens and half to herself. Then, she quickly replied, "Yes, milady."

The door opened, and a beautiful woman entered. She appeared to be in her mid-20s, and she had blond hair in two ponytails and hazel eyes. There was also a strange diamond mark on her forehead. The blond woman wore a grey spaghetti strap shirt under a green jacket. She also wore black capris and black high-heeled sandals.

Yugi and his friends were all awestruck by this woman's beauty. The young shinobi also seemed surprised, but this was only because of the fact that the 5th Hokage herself came to them.

The first to speak was Naruto, who pointed at her and yelled, "WHA!? What are you doing here, Grandma?"

While the hazel-eyed woman twitched slightly in annoyance, Ino smacked him across the back of the head and yelled, "Naruto, you moron! Don't call her that!"

The older teens were confused by these reactions; the woman in front of them didn't seem to look old in the slightest. As they all pondered this, Kakashi came in from behind the woman and said, "Well, it looks like everyone's here. I guess that makes it easier for us to talk with you all."

"Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto said, confused at why his teacher was here.

Yugi gasped as he recognized the grey-haired man, and the small boy exclaimed, "You're that man from before!"

Kakashi looked over to him and said, "Ah. You look much better than you were a moment ago. How are you?"

The tri-colored hair boy thought for a moment before saying, "Um, I feel fine, but what happened to Ita--"

He was suddenly silenced as the blond woman shushed him and pressed a finger to his lips. Then, she said, "Don't worry. We'll answer that for you soon enough."

She then turned to Ino and Hinata, addressed the two of them, and said, "Would you two mind waiting outside? I need to have a moment with our new guests."

"Yes, ma'am," Ino replied, not giving much thought about it. Before leaving, the blond kunouchi turned to Yugi's friends and asked, "Hey, when you guys are done, how about I give you a tour of the village?"

"That would be great. Thanks," Tristan told her as Tea nodded.

"No problem!" Ino responded. Before going out the door, she gave one last wink to Joey and said, "I'll be waiting."

Shortly after her departure, Hinata bowed to everyone and said, "G-goodbye. It was great to meet you and your friends, Yugi."

"It was great meeting you too, Hinata," Yugi replied cheerfully. As the indigo-haired girl began to leave, the small boy remembered something and added, "Oh, and thanks again for bringing back the puzzle."

Hinata gave a small smile and a short nod back, and then, she left the room quickly.

After he was sure that the two girls were a safe distance away, Joey let out a relieved sigh and said, "Man, I thought they'd never leave. That Ino chick is scary."

Naruto laughed at this and said, "Man, if you think that was bad, you should see her around her teammates or when she fangirls about Sasuke. Sometimes, she's as bad as Sakura, I swear."

"What was that?" The pink haired girl growled at him.

Before Naruto could think of a way to avert her rage, Kakashi cleared his throat, catching everyone's attention. As soon as everyone became focused on the adults, the blond woman said, "All right. Before I ask about this morning, I want to get this straight. Sasuke and Sakura have told me that you four were summoned from an entirely different universe by Naruto; is this true?"

"Yes, ma'am," Tea replied. "But, can we ask who you are?"

The blond woman replied, "Oh, of course. My name's Tsunade; I'm the head of the medical department."

"Wait, you're the one in charge?!" Joey asked with disbelief. He then stated, "We were told that you're the leader of this entire village!"

"That's correct," Tsunade told him.

Suddenly, the blond teen remembered something, and he added, "Naruto also said that you're an old woman in your 50s. How the heck do you look so young?"

Tsunade twitched slightly at being called an old woman, but quickly, she calmed down and replied, "I don't think that's necessary for you to know. Now, I'd like to hear about what happened this morning from the rest of you: just so we can have a better picture of what happened here."

So, getting back into serious discussion, everyone took their turns telling their own side of the story. The most interesting one for the adults to listen to was Yugi's; to put it simply, they did not expect a person like him to react the way he did towards Itachi. The small boy did leave out any details that concerned the nine-tailed fox, however, not sure if Naruto would've wanted him to share that kind of information.

Afterwards, Kakashi and Shizune had several questions in their minds. However, before they could be asked, Tsunade said, "Interesting. I'll be sure to keep this in mind."

Then, she turned to her assistant and asked, "Shizune, you cleaned Yugi's injury, right?"

"Yes, milady," Shizune responded.

"Good," the blond woman said. "I want you to take them off for me real quick."

As the brunette nodded her head and moved to Yugi's side to take off the bandages, Tristan asked, "Wait, what are you going to do?"

Tsunade turned her attention to the teens and responded calmly, "I'm going to get rid of your friend's injury."

"Wait. Get rid of it? Do you mean, like, make it disappear completely?" Tea asked, slightly confused by the hazel-eyed woman's response.

Joey chuckled and said, "That's impossible. You can't just fix something in a matter of seconds."

"Oh, is that right?" Tsunade said, looking him straight in the eyes. "Why don't I give you an example of my healing abilities?"

Joey was startled by this question and asked, "What do you mean?"

The blond woman motioned towards the cut on the blond teen's cheek, and he was reminded vaguely of when Kisame had given him that slight cut. Tsunade went over to him and placed a hand on his cheek. Then, her hand began to glow a pale green, causing Yugi and his friends to look in amazement. In a matter of seconds, the glow faded, but as far as Joey knew, he didn't feel much different. So, he asked, "Wait, that's it?"

"Yep, that's it," Tsunade told him. She handed him a small hand mirror and said, "Why don't you check and see for yourself?"

Slowly, Joey took the mirror. When he looked into it, he slightly gasped with surprise. The cut was gone! As he gently touched the spot where his cut used to be, the blond teen said quietly, "No way. It's like I never got hit. How did you do that?"

"Medical ninjutsu," the older woman said with a shrug, as if it were that simple. Then, she quickly turned her attention towards Yugi, whose arm was now completely un-bandaged. With his arm now uncovered, the occupants of the room could now see the scarred mark on his arm that was left by the kunai.

"All right, Yugi. Just relax," Tsunade said as she sat by the side of the bed.

Slowly, she placed her hand over the injury, and her hand began to glow a pale green once more. As she did her work, Tristan said to Sakura, "We had no idea you guys had healing powers; that's incredible!"

"Not really," the pink-haired girl said. "Although, it's true that you don't see many medic nins out there. You guys should be grateful to Lady Tsunade. If it weren't for her, there'd probably be even less medical ninjas out there. In fact, it's because of her work in the field of medical jutsus that made her known as one of the legendary Sannin."

"The legendary Sannin? Who are they, Sakura?" Tea asked her with curiosity.

Before the young kunouchi could explain this to the older teens, Tsunade said to them, "Well, his arm's fixed now."

The older teens looked over, and sure enough, Yugi's arm looked fine, clear of any marks. Tea, who seemed the happiest of Yugi's friends to hear this, turned to Tsunade and said, "Oh, thank you! Thank you so much!"

"It's no trouble at all," the blond woman told them. "We would, however, like to have Yugi stay at the hospital for the night: at least until we sort things out."

Joey was about to protest by saying that Yugi was a lot tougher than they thought and that a simple jab shouldn't keep him in the hospital, but Tristan elbowed his friend hard in the ribs and said, "Oh, that's fine. Just do what you gotta do."

After Yugi had gotten done looking at his newly healed arm with awe, the small boy turned to Tsunade and said, "Yeah, thanks, Lady Tsunade."

"No problem," Tsunade responded warmly. "Now, before I leave, I do have one more question for you."

As Yugi and the other young occupants looked at her curiously, the older woman said, "According to what I've heard from Sasuke, Itachi was planning on killing you right away. However, he noticed that you had said something that caused him to refrain from doing so. I just want to know what exactly you said to Itachi to make him change his mind."

The small boy hesitated in his reply; he wasn't sure how to answer since Naruto had seemed pretty uncomfortable with people knowing about his inner demon. After a while, Yugi finally said, "Well, I told him that I knew why they were after Naruto."

"Wait, you figured out why they were trying to take him in the first place?" Tristan asked with disbelief.

The other adults, however, became wary with the small boy's response. He sounded honest, but it was hard to believe that a stranger to their world could discover something as serious as this. To make sure that he wasn't fooling around with them, Tsunade came up close to him and whispered, "What were the exact words you said to him? Don't worry; you can tell me."

Yugi looked at the other occupants cautiously before he whispered back so the others couldn't hear, "I said they were after . . . the NTF."

It took a moment for the older woman to process the hidden meaning behind the letters. After realizing what NTF stood for, her mind went into a surprised state. She now knew without a doubt that Yugi knew about the nine-tailed fox.

"Uh, you okay?" Joey asked her after some silence had passed in the room.

The blond woman went out of her surprised state, nodded, and said, "Yes, I'll be fine."

Then, she turned to the other two adults and said, "Kakashi, Shizune, I'd like to speak with the two of you in my office right away."

They nodded in agreement and moved to leave the room. Then, Tsunade turned to the pink-haired kunouchi and said, "Sakura, I'd like you and your teammates to come to the Hokage Tower in about an hour. We'll discuss where our new guests will be staying then."

"Yes, Lady Tsunade," Sakura responded, giving a small bow.

As the adults left the room, all three of them thought that the next several days were going to be interesting to say the least.

"Lady Tsunade sure is something," Joey said after the three adults had left the room. "No wonder she's your leader."

"Yeah," Tea said, her thoughts drifting to how their small friend had answered her earlier question. Before she could ask about why they were after the blond shinobi, Sakura said, "Well, I need to go get a drink of water real quick. I'll make sure to come up here when I'm about to leave, okay?"

Everyone nodded back to her, saying that it would be fine. Then, the pink-haired girl left. Shortly after, Tristan said, "Well, we should probably get going. That girl, Ino, wanted to give us a tour, and if we're going to be staying here for a while, we should probably get to know this place a little better."

" . . . Oh, all right," Joey said with a slight groan, not wanting to run into the flirtatious girl again. Before heading out, he ruffled the small boy's hair and said, "We'll see ya later, Yug."

"Okay, see ya, guys," Yugi said to them. "Have fun."

"Get better soon," Tea said before giving the small boy a kiss to the forehead, resulting in said boy blushing lightly.

And with that, the older teens said their goodbyes to the other two shinobi and left. Afterwards, an uncomfortable silence filled the room. Yugi observed Sasuke and Naruto; from the silence, the tri-color haired boy guessed that something was troubling them. Finally, he asked, "Is something wrong, guys?"

The blond shinobi took a deep breath, feeling a little uneasy, and while playing with the sleeves of his jacket, began to say, "Look, Yugi. Um, about what happened earlier . . . . . well, I never . . . I didn't mean to . . . . . Look, I--"

"Hold on, Naruto. Before you say what you want to say, can I ask something first?"

Naruto looked over at his rival with a confused face. Then, after thinking about it, he dumbly nodded his head. Yugi asked, "What is it, Sasuke?"

The young Uchiha heir looked at the small boy and said, "Yugi, I know you're no idiot like Joey or Naruto."

The blond shinobi gave Sasuke a cold glare while the raven haired boy continued, "You, of all people, should've been able to realize how powerful Itachi was. He's a heartless bastard who rarely ever spares anyone, yet you still stood up to him: even after knowing how strong he was. Why? Why did you do that?"

Yugi went into silence, remembering vividly what had happened that morning. He turned his gaze to look out the window while thinking of how to respond. After a long moment of silence, never turning his gaze away from the window, he said softly, "I was scared."

Naruto and Sasuke both found his response to be a bit strange, so they waited for the small boy to clarify. As Yugi gripped the chain to his pendant, he continued, "Ever since I finished the Millennium Puzzle, my friends and I have been put in danger countless times. Normally, they were only after me, though. When I felt Itachi's power today, I knew that he was probably the most dangerous person that I've ever come across before, so I guess I was scared that he'd end up hurting people that had nothing to do with what they were after."

He then turned to his ninja friends with a friendly smile on his face, and he finished, "I guess to put it simply, I was afraid that he was going to kill one of my friends right in front of me."

The two shinobi stared at him, shocked at the response, and Naruto thought, "Wait. So he made Itachi attack him . . . . . to protect us?"

Sasuke was additionally surprised because the only one that he had seen Itachi hurting was Sasuke himself, which would mean that Yugi was urged due to that. This confused him, though. Did that mean that Yugi considered them friends? After a while, Sasuke decided to leave. Before heading out the door, though, he scowled at the two occupants of the room and said, "Well, if we ever run into Itachi again, Yugi, stay out of my way. I'm the only one that will call Itachi out and fight him."

Then, he left and slammed the door behind him. Yugi stared after the direction that the Uchiha heir left through with a thoughtful expression on his face. Meanwhile, Naruto said, "Man, he is such an asshole! Why does Sasuke constantly say that only he can fight Itachi? I swear, one of these days, I'm gonna . . ."

". . . In a way, he's like me."

Naruto's mind went blank as he processed what his friend had just said. When he finished, the blond boy went into a fit of laughter as if he had heard a really, REALLY funny joke. He laughed for a few minutes before calming himself down quickly. Then, he looked over at Yugi and saw that he didn't find it funny. Finally, Naruto asked, "Wait. You're serious?"

When he saw Yugi nod his head, the blond boy couldn't believe it. He asked, "Are you crazy, Yugi? I mean, how could you compare yourself to a jerk like Sasuke? What could you two possibly have in common?"

"It has to do with Itachi," Yugi responded, resulting in Naruto staring at him, confusion evident on his face. The tri-color haired boy chuckled slightly at the look on his face and said, "Maybe you'll understand someday. Anyways, you wanted to say something earlier, right?"

In a matter of seconds, the blond shinobi remembered what he was going to say. He sat by the small boy, took a breath to relax himself, and said, "Well, I just wanted to say . . . I'm sorry."

Now it was Yugi's turn to look confused. With curiosity, he asked, "For what?"

The blond boy looked down and thought for a moment before saying, "Oh, I don't know. A lot of things, I guess. Like, I didn't mean to call you a dwarf earlier. Plus, I shouldn't have let you get hurt. Most importantly, I'm sorry that I had made assumptions about the spirit inside your puzzle."

Yugi looked at him with surprise; the first two things weren't a big deal to him, but he didn't expect Naruto to apologize about the last bit. To be honest, he had completely forgotten that he had told Naruto about Yami. When the small boy made no response, Naruto continued, "I shouldn't have just called him a demon, but I didn't know any better. I've only met one other person with a spirit in their body, and that spirit was a demon too. So, I thought that all spirits sharing a body with someone were like that. I wasn't thinking that the spirit wasn't evil, so, sorry. Maybe if I didn't assume things, you might not have gotten hurt this morning."

Yugi's amethyst eyes inspected the young boy, and he could see from Naruto's sparkling blue eyes that he truly did feel sorry about all this; how he had kept that regret hidden so well before was a mystery to him. With a kind voice, Yugi said, "It's all right, Naruto. I forgive you, although it wasn't your fault that I got hurt. What had happened was a result of my own actions, so you shouldn't worry about it. And it was more my fault since I had accidentally spilled to you all of that information. You have to understand, Naruto, my friends are already sharing my burden, and they've been put in danger so many times because of it. I didn't want you, or anyone else, to get put in that kind of danger, too."

Naruto suddenly came to a decision in his mind, and after a moment, he said, "Okay, how about we do this, then? I won't tell anyone about the spirit inside your Millennium Puzzle if you promise not to tell anyone about my inner demon. All right?"

The blond boy held his hand out to him, waiting for some sort of response. Yugi looked at him for a moment. Then, he smiled, shook Naruto's hand, and said, "Deal."

Naruto gave a fox grin in return, and after shaking hands, the two boys sat in silence. After a while, Naruto asked, "So, can I meet him?"

". . . What?"

"The spirit in your puzzle, can I meet him?"

"Oh!" Yugi said, realizing what the blond boy was asking.

Before the small boy could say anything to his question, the door opened, and Sakura popped her head in and said, "Naruto, we need to get going soon. Are you coming?"

Naruto sighed and muttered quietly, "Of all the rotten luck . . ."

"Don't worry," Yugi said. "We can talk later, okay?"

The blond shinobi looked into the small boy's amethyst eyes for a moment. Then, he smiled, got up, and said, "All right! See ya later, Yugi!"

"Bye, guys," the small boy said as the two shinobi left.

Now, finally alone, Yugi laid back in his bed, and through his mind link, he said to Yami, "Well, today's been pretty hectic, huh, Yami?"

"Yes, I agree," Yami replied. "But I have a feeling that this is only the beginning. Yugi, we must be careful these next few days."

"Right," Yugi replied before finally deciding to take a small nap, hoping that things could be sorted out soon.

**PreviewPreviewPreviewPreviewPreview**

**Naruto: Well, this is just terrific!**

**Joey: What's the problem?**

**Naruto: Granma Tsunade knows all about you guys now. She says that we need to keep you guys safe while she figures out how to get you home. What are we going to do until she can find something?**

**Joey: . . . . . Um, I don't know. . . . . Hey! I know! Why not train us to be ninjas?**

**Naruto: Say, that's not a bad idea. It'll keep ya safe, and I could get in some training at the same time! All right! I'll bring it up!**

**Next time - Arrangement! Settling Down the Newcomers!**

**

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Well, there you go folks! Now, before you push that review button that oh so many fanfic users enjoy, I must speak about pairings. Since I'm trying to make this story sort of show format, there is no certain romance that I'm focusing on, so if you see something hinting to a pairing you like, then yay for you. If I do lean to a specific pairing, it will be a crossover romance between Hinata and Yugi. Now before I get a hundred complaints from NaruHina shippers, allow me to explain! **

**One day, during lunch, I was thinking of other possible pairings with Hinata. I thought, "Naruto is too oblivious to be worthy for Hinata sometimes, and he's a main character, so she may get in danger more often because of that." No one else seemed to fit, though. Then, randomly, Yugi came into my mind, and I thought, "That would be a cute pairing! I don't care if they're not in the same anime; that's adorable!" And then, through a lot of interesting daydreams, this crossover story was born. But, like I said earlier, I'm not gonna focus on romance that much in this story, so any pairing, be it canon or crossover, you see a slight hint for, then yay for you.**

**Now for my next matter of business. For those with a deviantart account, I am thinking about making a NarutoxYu-Gi-Oh crossover club. Anyone that thinks I should do it and/or would think about joining, go to my fanfic profile and find the link to my deviantart account. By now, I should have a new journal up, giving details about this idea. So, help make this unique crossover slightly more known in the world! :)**

**Okay, now I'm done. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Review if you have any comments, and peace out!**


	7. Settling the Newcomers

**Welcome back everybody! AnimeSnowflake coming back from the dead with another update! It seemed much easier to write this chapter after Christmas 'cuz I got a SansaFuze, and the music helped me with my writing! I'm happily bringing this update on account of that and several other things: 1) my B-day is this Saturday, 2) I got good grades on my semester exams, 3) I got a job, and 4) I finally got some members to join my NYC-Club on deviantart! But more on my life later. I hope you enjoy this update! :)**

**Disclaimer: It would be nice if I could own either of these animes for my B-day, but I highly doubt it'll happen then, or any other day for that matter.

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**

**Arrangement: Settling Down the Newcomers**

The afternoon had already begun in the Hidden Leaf Village. At the current moment, Tsunade, Shizune and Kakashi were in the Hokage's office, discussing about the universal newcomers. More specifically, Tsunade was informing the two adults on what Yugi had told her earlier in the hospital.

"What?!" Kakashi said incredulously with evident shock in his voice. "Is this true?!"

"Yes," Tsunade said calmly. "He knows."

"But how?" Shizune asked. "How did Yugi learn about the Nine-Tailed Fox in the first place?"

"How he learned about it doesn't matter," Tsunade told her. "What I'm more worried about at the moment is that he learned that the Akatsuki are after it. And what's worse, they know that he figured it out."

"But Lady Tsunade," Shizune said with confusion. "I don't understand; is that bad?"

"Trust me, Shizune, it's bad," Kakashi told her, a serious tone in his voice. "When I fought those two, they tried to take me once they figured out that I knew about the Akatsuki and their motives. I'm pretty sure that this won't be the last time that they try to come after Yugi."

"I agree," Tsunade said, turning to look out the window. "Still, I find it hard to believe that this would be the only reason for him to become a target. Those two are after something, but what?"

The adults tried thinking of other reasons, but before they could say anything, there was a knock at the door. After a moment, the adults heard the voice of Sakura as she asked, "May we come in, Lady Hokage?"

"Wait one moment," Tsunade told her. Quietly, she said to Shizune and Kakashi, "We won't mention any of our suspicions concerning the Akatsuki to anyone. I don't want our shinobi or new guests to worry until we know for certain the enemy's next course of action. Do I make myself clear?"

They nodded their approval of her plan. As soon as she saw this, Tsunade called back, "All right. Come in, guys."

Silently, the young members of squad seven entered the office. The three of them looked occupied in their own thoughts: Sakura, thinking of how Tsunade would handle this situation, Sasuke, thinking back in frustration of his failed attempt to beat Itachi earlier that day, and Naruto, wondering when Yugi would finally introduce him to the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle.

After looking around, Kakashi was the first to break the ice by asking, "Um, guys, where are our guests?"

"Taking a tour," Naruto replied casually. He then turned to the Sannin and asked, "So, Grandma Tsunade, where are these guys going to stay?"

Tsunade's eye twitched furiously at the nickname. Before she could proceed to fling her desk at him or launch him out the window, however, Shizune intervened and asked, "First off, there's something we'd like to know. How did you summon them again?"

Naruto put on a look of slight confusion and said, "I don't know. I think we got the summoning jutsu from a book or something."

"Well, are you sure that this book didn't have a way to send them back?" the young woman asked as Tsunade gained back her cool.

Sakura replied, "Well, when we read the book, it looked like it had a jutsu to reverse it, but the page that it was supposed to be found on was missing."

"… I see," Tsunade said softly, putting her hand to her chin and having a thoughtful look in her hazel eyes. After a moment, the blond woman turned to Kakashi and asked, "Do you remember anyone ever looking through this book, Kakashi?"

Kakashi thought about for a moment, and then, he said thoughtfully, "Well, of course. Several Jounin have taken it before to learn new jutsu, and once, even the 3rd Hokage used it once."

This caused the blond woman to raise her eyebrows in surprise. Then, she said, "Really? And when was this?"

"I can't remember all that well," Kakashi said, rubbing the back of his head in an embarrassed gesture. "It was a long time ago."

As the grey-haired man pulled out his book, Make-Out Paradise, Tsunade thought over the information given to her. After a while, she said to the Genin, "All right. Here's what will happen for the next several days. While Shizune and myself try to figure out how to send Yugi and the others back, you three will have them stay with you. Keep them safe, and don't pick any fights."

As she spoke, Sasuke inwardly groaned and thought, "So, pretty much, she expects us to babysit? This will just hold me back."

"But, what if we're attacked again?" Sakura asked with worry. "If those two ninja come back, we won't stand a chance!"

"Sakura's right!" Naruto added with concern evident in his eyes and voice. "We need to them how to fight back or at least how to defend themselves!"

Sasuke gave him a suspicious look at this statement, and he asked, "What are you implying?"

It seemed as if Naruto had been waiting for someone to ask him this; with a fierce look in his eyes, the blond boy said boldly, "I saw we train them to become ninjas like us!"

The adults remained silent, contemplating this, while Sakura said, "Are you kidding? It took us years to learn how to become shinobi. Do you really think they could learn in a few days what took us years to learn?"

Naruto replied with a huff, "Well, they're older than we were back then; I think they can manage. Besides, I don't see you or Sasuke making any suggestions."

"That's because we actually think about what to do, not just blurt out whatever comes to our minds first," Sakura explained in a tone that clearly showed her annoyance with him at the moment.

At that moment, Sasuke said, "Actually, I have to agree with Naruto on this one. Teaching those four how to fight like shinobi would make protecting them a lot easier for us."

Naruto smiled at hearing this, but this moment was short lived as the young Uchiha heir continued, "However, I'm not sure we should trust them enough for that. How can we be certain that they won't just stab us in the back later on?"

He then proceeded to glare at his blond teammate, daring him to respond. Naruto in response growled and said angrily, "They'd never do that! Besides, I think you're more worried about them going after that bastard brother of yours, Itachi!"

Naruto had hit the nail on the head with that last statement, those being Sasuke's actual thoughts. At hearing the elder Uchiha's name, Sasuke clenched his teeth together, and his hands balled into fists. He would've gone up to Naruto and started a fight, but seeing where this conversation was going, Kakashi moved over and placed himself between the two boys. After he had told Sasuke to calm down, Tsunade said to the group, "If you wish to teach them self-defense, I don't have any problem with it. For shinobi training, however, you need to have a Chuunin supervise, not to mention consent from everyone involved."

"Aren't all Chuunin busy with missions right now?" Sakura asked, wondering how they could get a supervisor.

In response to her question, Shizune said, "Actually, we just promoted Shikamaru to Chuunin; I'm sure you could get him to help."

"WHAT?!" Naruto said with shock. "He became Chuunin? Shikamaru?!?"

"Yeah," Kakashi said, laughing slightly. "Weird how things work that way, huh?"

After the members of squad seven got over their surprise, Naruto brightened up and said cheerfully, "That's awesome! Tomorrow, we can find Shikamaru and get him to train Yugi, Tristan, Joey and Tea! This'll be so cool!"

"Not so fast, Naruto," Tsunade said as she walked towards the office doors. "You're still going to have to convince him to help; plus, you need to propose this idea to everyone else. Fortunately, the latter has already been taken care of."

The young shinobi gave Tsunade looks of confusion. Then, after a brief moment, the blond woman opened the doors. Immediately, Joey, who had been leaning on the door to listen to the conversation, fell forward. Quickly, he got up, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment while giving a small chuckle. Behind him, Tristan and Tea sighed.

"Hey guys!" Naruto exclaimed. "What are you doing here? I thought you guys were taking a tour."

"Ino dropped us off," Tea explained. Then, she said nervously, "We would've waited downstairs for you to be done, but--"

"--But Joey here wanted to eavesdrop," Tristan finished, stating the truth rather bluntly.

"I did not!" Joey shouted at him. "I just wanted to gather information."

"Well, how much did you hear?" Sakura asked, not wanting to hear any more arguments today.

The blond teen turned to them and said casually, "Oh, well, the first thing I heard of your conversation was when Naruto said something about mini-Kaiba not wanting us to go after Itachi."

As Sasuke delved into the familiar feelings associated with Itachi, the adults became slightly confused at Joey's "nickname" for the raven-haired boy. Curious, Kakashi asked, "Um, mini-Kaiba?"

"Don't ask," Tristan told him with a short sigh.

Ignoring this, Tsunade said to the teens, "So, you heard about our plan to teach you to fight?"

"Don't you mean train us to be ninja? And yeah, we did," Joey told her.

"So?" Tsunade asked them. "What do you think?"

The blond teen seemed to think about it for a moment. Then, with a grin on his face and a fierce look in his eyes, he responded, "Well, I like the sound of it. You can count me in!"

"Me too," Tristan added in. "This sounds like something we should learn before something like today happens again."

A lapse of silence filled the air as all attention became focused on Tea. She was looking towards the ground, a concerned look in her sapphire eyes. To break the silence and hopefully get a response, Kakashi asked, "So, what about you?"

After another brief moment of silence, the blue-eyed girl finally said, "Well, if we're learning ninja techniques…" she brought up her head, a determined look now in her eyes. "… would I be able to learn medical jutsus?"

The younger shinobi looked towards Tea, surprise in heir eyes; from the look on her face, she seemed determined to get this type of training. Her other friends, however, perfectly understood what she was thinking about. Joey asked, "Tea, does this have anything to do with what happened to Yugi today?"

Tea gave a sharp nod in response and said, "Yes. I don't want to be in that kind of situation again and not be able to help!"

Tsunade smiled at what she said; her words reminded the Sannin of herself when she was younger. Tea seemed pretty set on medical jutsus, and she had the proper drive to study it. So, the blond woman told her, "Very well. When you finish mastering chakra control, come by my office, and I can start training you in the medical field. Just know that it won't be easy."

Tea broke out into a bright smile bowed to her, and said, "Yes ma'am! Thank you so much!"

After this, Shizune said, "Well, now that that's settled, did you decide where everyone's staying?"

This seemed to stump the older teens for a moment; they hadn't thought about that. Sakura thought aloud, "Well, Tea will stay with me, of course. That goes without saying. We won't need to figure Yugi out until tomorrow since he's staying at the hospital tonight, so that just leaves Tristan and Joey."

"Right," Joey said. "And since we're supposed to be with you guys for however long we're staying here, we have to choose between--- Naruto… and…" He trailed off as he came to a sickening realization and looked over towards Sasuke with dread.

It seemed that Tristan was having the same exact thoughts, and at the same time, the two boys exclaimed loudly, "I call Naruto!!"

They both glared at each other, and Joey said, "You're going with mini-Kaiba!"

"Why can't you?" Tristan retorted back.

As they continued arguing, Tea groaned and smacked her forehead, muttering, "Boys…"

"Wow! I don't think I've ever beaten Sasuke at popularity!" Naruto said happily, earning him glares from his teammates.

After a while, Tristan ended the argument by saying, "Look, why don't we settle this the usual way?"

Joey paused and gave his brunette friend a look of confusion. Then, he asked, "Wait, do you mean 'Rock, Paper, Scissors'?"

"Yep," Tristan replied, earning sweatdrops from most of the occupants in the room. "First to three wins goes with Naruto."

"Fine," the blond teen replied, stretching his arms out. "Just don't cry when I beat you."

_**-A short moment later-**_

"WHAT?!? Three times in a row??"

Tristan stood there, a smile on his face, and he said, "Well, looks like I win. Sorry, man."

Joey was slumped over, a defeated demeanor being expressed from his body. He whined to his friend, "No. You're not sorry at all! You rigged those rounds, and you know it!"

"He didn't do anything, Joey," Tea said matter-of-factly. "All Tristan did was pick paper every round. You just weren't lucky; that's all."

Joey turned away from the group, anime tears streaming down his face, and he said with despair, "Don't remind me! Now, I'm stuck with mini-Kaiba 'cuz of my stupid luck!"

In response to this outburst, Sasuke said, "Hmph, just stay out of my way, idiot."

"What was that?!" Joey shouted back in an angry tone.

"You heard me," the young boy said in a smug tone.

As the blond boy growled and glared at the young boy, knowing that he wouldn't enjoy this, Kakashi sighed, thinking, "It seems Sasuke has a gift for making others hate him. This won't end well."

"Okay, you guys can leave now," Tsunade told them. "We'll call you back if we find anything about how to send our guests back home."

"Thank you, Lady Tsunade," Sakura said as she and everyone else left the office.

**TimeLapseTimeLapseTimeLapseTimeLapseTimeLapse**

The sun was now setting, and as Joey was walking down the streets, he couldn't help but frown and glare daggers at Sasuke. The group had split up a while ago, and at that point, the blond teen had stopped talking, knowing that the arrogant shinobi wouldn't be friendly even if he said something to him.

While they continued to make their way through the streets in silence, Joey thought, "Man, I still can't believe I got stuck with **him** of all people! That Sasuke's a real jerk, thinking he's all superior and what not. He's probably just gonna be a total ass the entire time we're at his house or mansion or wherever the hell he lives."

"Well, we're here," Sasuke told him in a monotonous tone, bringing the blond teen out of his thoughts. Joey had to do a double-take, however, not believing what he saw.

"What?" Sasuke asked while raising his eyebrow, wondering why he looked so dumbstruck. "Were you expecting something?"

He looked back to the young Uchiha and responded, "Well, yeah! I was expecting a mansion with balconies and statues and butlers and stuff, not an apartment!!"

And, in fact, they had stopped in front of an apartment. It did actually have one balcony, but other than that, it didn't resemble a mansion in the slightest. Sasuke rolled his eyes at the older teen's statement of surprise and moved towards the apartment, saying, "Well, if you have a problem with it, you can sleep outside."

Not wanting to be left outside to deal with a cold breeze, Joey followed him into the apartment. When they reached the place where Sasuke settled down, the blond teen was as surprised as he was when he saw the apartment. On the left side of the room upon entering, there was a wide window with curtains on each side. There was a picture of squad seven set up on the windowsill. Then, propped up under the window was a dresser for clothes, a small bookshelf and a wooden counter with a small TV on top of it. In the far corner of the room, there was an armchair with a table placed next to it. On the far wall, there was a sliding door that led out to the balcony. In the middle of the room was a neatly made bed; by its side was an end table with a lamp on top of it. Finally, on the right wall were two doors and one open walkway: areas that Joey guessed led to a closet, bathroom and kitchen.

"Wow," Joey said as he looked around the room. "There's not a single item in this room that shows how much of a jerk you are."

"A shinobi doesn't need a fancy place to live," Sasuke said as he turned the lamp on to get some light into the room. "As long as the regular human needs can be met, the house is just fine."

"… Weird," Joey thought as he meandered over to the wide window. Looking out through the window, he thought quietly, "Nice view."

"You take the chair tonight," Sasuke said, once again bringing the blond out of his thoughts. "We'll set up a mattress tomorrow. There should be a spare blanket in the closet."

With that being said, the young shinobi went to the kitchen to find something to eat. Joey was surprised at Sasuke's unusually polite behavior; he hadn't even thrown any snide comments. The only thing that irked him was how the raven-haired boy wasn't even trying to strike up a normal conversation. However, he didn't let this affect him, and the blond wandered over to the closet. Strangely enough, he picked the right door with the first guess, and he was surprised to see the closet so organized. Joey scanned the storage space with his brown eyes until he spotted a neatly folded maroon blanket. When he reached for the blanket, he felt its fleecy texture. He draped the blanket over his right shoulder and was going to take it over to the armchair until something caught his eye: a small, old picture frame with a layer of dust coating the glass.

Curiosity getting the better of him, Joey quietly picked up the frame, observing the wooden outline. He thought, "This is a nice frame. Why doesn't Sasuke use this? I mean, even a guy like him has to have pictures to put in here, right?"

His fingers shifted slightly across the glass, and the blond teen was surprised to see part of a photo already in the picture frame. Wanting to see the full photo, he wiped away the brown dust, and his brown eyes were greeted by a family photo. There were four people in the photo: the parents and two young boys.

Joey did a double-take at seeing the younger boys, and after a moment, he thought, "Whoa! Is that Itachi and Sasuke?"

After observing the photo more intently, he could see the similarities between the Uchiha brothers and their younger selves, but he still couldn't believe the fact that they were smiling. The father had brown hair, deep onyx eyes, and a serious look on his face: the ideal picture of a leader. The mother seemed gentler and had black hair and onyx eyes.

As he stared at the photo, Sasuke came out of the kitchen, chewing the remnants of an onigiri. He turned to Joey and said, "Well, how long do you plan on staying the--"

He froze, however, when he spotted the picture frame that Joey was holding. A pang of discomfort ran through his body as memories that he would rather forget flashed in his mind. Joey seemed to notice Sasuke standing there, and he brought the young boy out of his daze by asking, "Um, are you okay?"

Finally being able to react, Sasuke quickly snatched the picture from Joey's hands and hit him across the back of the head. After giving a short yelp, the blond teen shouted, "OW! What the hell, man?!"

"Don't EVER touch this!" Sasuke growled in a furious tone, much different then his indifferent tone from earlier. Sasuke would probably never admit this to anyone, but he had an extreme pet peeve against people who would nose around in his family business. Not only was it disrespectful, but for Sasuke in particular, it brought up painful memories: either of the Uchiha Massacre or sometimes happier times he had with Itachi when he was younger. At moments, those memories were worse than that of the Massacre since Sasuke knew that the happiness from long ago could never come back in his life.

As he shoved the picture back into the closet, Joey said, "Hey! Why are you getting so worked up? It's just a photo! Is there something wrong with showing a picture of your family? I mean, I guess I get why you wouldn't want to be shown in a picture with Itachi, but what's so bad about your parents?"

Unseen by Joey's eyes, Sasuke's face expressed shock and ….. a hint of pain? Now, the young boy felt that the older teen was taking this conversation too far. Realizing something, Joey asked, "Speaking of which, where **are** your parents?"

"None of your business," Sasuke said, voice trying to hide the signs of discomfort. He slammed the closet door and went towards the window.

Kind of annoyed, Joey said, "Don't you dare pull that crap with me, mini-Kaiba! Isn't it important for me to know your parents? How do you know that they're okay with a complete stranger staying here with you?"

"They won't know a thing about it," the raven-haired boy said, voice wavering in volume levels as he tried to calm down with little success.

As he sat on the edge of his bed, back facing the blond teen, Joey asked, "Oh, really now? Why? Are they sick? Stupid? Out of town?"

"Dead."

Joey froze, startled by that one simple word. The young boy had simply uttered it, but somehow, he could sense the bleakness in Sasuke's voice. Wanting to make sure he heard right, and hoping that he didn't, Joey asked, "Wha… What'd you say?"

Sasuke's hands balled into fists at hearing the question, and a sick feeling entered his chest; how many times did he have to say it? In a slightly louder, more aggravated tone, he replied, "They're dead, okay? Just drop it now."

"… Oh," Joey muttered quietly, looking towards the ground in shame. He finally realized that he had brought up a very painful subject to Sasuke. He had no idea what to do as the silence seemed to engulf them. Talking about things could make things worse, and he was NOT going to give him comforting human contact! Sasuke probably wasn't the type to accept that, and besides, doing that was more like Yugi's kind of thing. Finally, after what seemed like hours, Joey said, "Well, I guess that explains your attitude then."

Sasuke glanced over at him, unable to hide the questioning look in his eyes. Joey went to the armchair and explained, "Well, some pretty serious crap happened with Kaiba, too. Yug knows a lot more about it than I do, but apparently, Kaiba and his little brother, Mokuba, got adopted by some guy called… Eh, well, I forget his name. Anyways, because of that guy, Rich Boy's the arrogant son of a bitch that he is today."

Sasuke hn'd and turned away from Joey to turn off the lamp. He didn't even bother to change into more comfortable clothes to sleep in; he wasn't in a mood to get up. He got under the covers, not wanting Joey to talk to him anymore. Joey sat in silence and looked up towards the ceiling, thinking about their conversation. After a long moment in silence, the blond could tell that Sasuke had already fallen asleep. Looking towards his still form, Joey said, "You two really are alike; you've both gone through some serious shit that somehow made you stronger. But you're also different from Kaiba. While he cares about his brother more than life itself, you loathe Itachi to no end."

In a quieter, gentler voice, he said, "I'm gonna figure out what Itachi did to make you hate him so much. As soon as I find out what he did, I'm gonna force him to make it up to you; it's his duty as the older brother to fix this!"

After saying this, Joey settled down into a comfortable position, and after a while, he fell asleep, believing that no one had heard what he had just said. Little did he know that Sasuke had heard every word of it. He had been unable to sleep with his troubling thoughts keeping him up, and he was surprised to hear Joey say such things, especially when it seemed that Joey was the one who disliked him the most. For a moment, he thought about telling the blond teen that it was actually Itachi who had killed his parents, but he decided against it, not wanting him or anybody else to learn the truth. Finally, after a few more minutes, Sasuke fell into a dreamless sleep.

**PreviewPreviewPreviewPreviewPreview**

**Naruto: All righty, guys! Let's go!**

**Tristan: Hold on; where are we going exactly?**

**Naruto: To find the person that'll help you guys become shinobi like us!**

**Joey: Oh, yeah. Someone called Shikamaru. So, what's this guy like anyways?**

**Sakura: Um, well, how do I say this?**

**Tea: What? What kind of person is he?**

**Naruto: Look, let's just save that for later and find him already!**

**Next time - Initiation! The Laid-back Teacher!**

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**God! The preview for next chappie was very difficult to type this time around! Well, overall, the only thing that I may have a problem with in this chapter is my portrayal of Sasuke. I'm not sure if that got him out of character or not. Oh, well, I guess I'll figure out in the reviews! This chapter seems very short compared to the last three; that's kinda weird....**

**Anyhoo, I have a feeling that my life is going to run more smoothly the next several days. What with the good grades and new job (as a vender at Six Flags, I might add) I feel as if things couldn't get any better. If you could review or try to join the NYC-Club on deviantart, that would add more pleasure in my life.**

**So on that note, thanks for reading the latest update, and I hope your days are going pretty good as well. See ya later! ^-^**


	8. Initiation

**I'm finally back! Bet you guys can't believe I'm still alive, huh? Well, I apologize for lagging with this update. A LOT has been going on lately. I find it kinda funny that it almost took me an ENTIRE YEAR to update! I'll make sure to be better about that in the future. I'll leave updates on my life for after the chapter, 'cuz I'm sure you don't wanna be left waiting for the next chapter.**

**Disclaimer: Naruto and Yu-Gi-Oh. Both totally different series, yet they have something in common. I don't own them! XD**

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**Initiation: The Laid-Back Teacher**

The next morning came normally; it seemed that today was going to become cloudier later on with a threat of rain. Quite calmly, Naruto and Tristan made their way to squad 7's normal meeting spot. Upon reaching the bridge, they spotted Sasuke leaning back casually against the railing, a bored expression on his face.

"Hey, where is everybody?" Tristan asked as he looked around, trying to spot a familiar face.

"I bet you anything Kakashi-sensei is running late again," Naruto stated with a frown, stressing out the last word with annoyance in his voice.

"Actually, he came early today," Sasuke said nonchalantly, causing his blond teammate to stare in surprise. "He told all of us that were here that we don't have any missions this week. He said that would give us time to train our guests. Sakura and Tea said that they were going to stop by the hospital to get Yugi, so I decided to wait here."

The information given to them hardly made an impact on Naruto; currently, he was still shocked by the fact that Kakashi was not only on time today, but early too! The one day Naruto had decided to actually sleep in on purpose his sensei decided to arrive on time. The whole situation frustrated him to no end!

Suddenly, Tristan noticed another missing presence and asked, "Um, where's Joey? I thought he came here with you, Sasuke."

Sasuke scowled at the mentioned name and turned away from the two, saying, "How should I know? Do I look like an idiot's keeper?"

The two other boys looked at each other for a minute, both a little taken aback at the young Uchiha's retort. Then, the brunette looked back at Sasuke and said, "I don't know; I'm just worried about my pal. Besides, I thought you were supposed to be helping us out."

"All I have to do is make sure you're not attacked; that doesn't mean I'm going to want you guys around me on a regular basis," Sasuke told him bluntly.

"Well, you don't have to be grumpy, Sasuke," Naruto said, a look of slight anger on his face. "He just asked you a question, that's all."

"Gee, thanks for ditching me, mini-Kaiba!"

The three boys turned their heads and saw Joey approach the bridge, hair messier than usual and an annoyed look on his face.

"What happened, man?" Tristan asked after seeing his friend's state. "Did you get lost or something?"

"No, I just overslept," Joey grumbled before rubbing his eyes and yawning. "I don't get it. I should've gotten enough sleep, but I still feel so tired."

"I bet," the brunette responded, nodding in understanding. "The two of you were probably arguing the whole night."

Both Joey and Sasuke flinched slightly at the mention of last night. Startled by their silence, Tristan looked between them and asked, "What? Did I ask something strange? What did you guys talk about last night?"

A bit more silence passed before anything was said. Sasuke merely looked down while Joey said, "Actually, we didn't really talk at all last night."

"What? Seriously?" the brunette asked with surprise. "I thought for sure you would've bickered until dawn with the way you've been interacting with each other."

Joey said nothing to this, thinking about last night. Normally, he'd probably be happy to share his life with his friends, but this time, he felt like it'd be best not to say anything. The blond teen wasn't exactly sure what type of person Sasuke was, but he did feel like the boy wouldn't be happy with people treating him with pity just because he lost his parents. Plus, Joey didn't want to make the young Uchiha dislike him even more. What happened last night probably stayed in his mind as well, because when Joey got up that morning, Sasuke was nowhere in sight. All that the blond boy had seen was the extra mattress set up and a note explaining where he was to go meet the others. Joey just figured from that moment that the other boy simply didn't want to have to talk about last night's conversation.

"Joey!"

"Nyeh?" Joey broke out of his sudden trance to see Naruto in front of him, a slightly annoyed look on his face. Figuring out that the blond shinobi was trying to talk to him, he said, "Oh, I'm sorry. What'd you say?"

Somewhat annoyed, he said, "I asked you if Sasuke even tried being sociable with you last night or if he just ignored you."

Deciding to try and forget about the night before, Joey put on a smirk and said, "Well, it was more or less the latter. I guess mini-Kaiba just had a stick up his ass yesterday."

"This is Sasuke we're talking about; he ALWAYS has a stick up his ass!" Naruto said in response, having a huge grin on his face.

As the two blondes chuckled at their own comments, Tristan looked at them and said, "Wow, those two really are alike…"

Sasuke merely looked curiously at the two, pondering over Joey's behavior. Before the boys could do anything else, Sakura and Tea ran up to the group with slightly worried expressions on their faces. After approaching them, the blue-eyed girl said, "Guys, we have a problem!"

"Huh? What is it?" Naruto asked bluntly, wondering what was wrong with them.

Quickly, Sakura said, "It's Yugi; he's gone!"

"What?!" all the boys, even Sasuke, exclaimed in unison.

Tea went and explained further, saying, "Well, we reached the hospital to pick him up. But the nurse at the reception desk said he had checked out a half hour ago and left."

"That's not good," Joey said. "He didn't take that tour like we did; what if he gets lost?"

Everyone could very well picture that scenario of Yugi wandering lost among the many villagers, and the thought worried some of them greatly. After a moment, Sasuke calmly said, "I wouldn't be too worried about it. The Leaf Village isn't that big, and Yugi is pretty noticeable. I'm sure we'll run into him on the way to our destination."

"Wait, where are we going?" Tristan asked out of curiosity.

A little taken aback, Sakura said, "Oh, we're going to meet up with Shikamaru and ask him to help train you guys. Didn't we tell you that?"

The brunette shook his head along with Joey's. Then, Sakura said, "Oh, well, now you know. Anyways, we'll probably bump into Yugi on the way there."

"Yeah, Sakura's right," Naruto said reassuringly. "Now, let's go already."

"Okay," Joey said with a little bit of doubt. Then, he quietly mumbled to himself, "Poor Yug's probably completely anxious right now…"

* * *

"Man, I feel so anxious…" Yugi thought while walking down the streets of the Leaf Village. The small boy mentally said to his friend. "Yami, please remind me again. Why did we check out of the hospital instead of waiting for the others?"

Calmly, Yami appeared in spirit form beside him and replied, "I just wanted to go through town. After all, if we're going to be staying here for a while, we need to know our way around. Besides, you seemed tense staying in one place; I figured walking around would do you some good."

"I could've waited!" Yugi replied, his mind not feeling at ease at all. "Besides, I'm not really sure that walking around the village alone is such a good idea."

Getting serious, the puzzle spirit said, "Don't worry. I don't believe that Itachi would come back after being driven out just yesterday. He probably knows that he has to strike while our guard is down and when we least expect it."

"That's not what I mean," Yugi said a little nervously.

Yami gave the small boy a startled look. As he had time to think, he finally came to notice all of the strange looks coming from the villagers and the way they murmured to themselves. Then, he took a look at his counterpart who was fussing around with his hair. Finally realizing what the child was worried about, Yami gave him a slightly amused look and asked, "Yugi, are you seriously worried about what the villagers are saying about you and your appearance?"

In a slightly embarrassed tone, the small boy mentally replied, "Well, I don't want to sound overdramatic, but I haven't been this self-conscious about my hair since I was ten years old!"

Yami chuckled at his friend's response and said, "Yugi, people are bound to curious. You don't have to get so worked up."

This didn't seem to ease Yugi's mind at all, and with a bit more volume, the small boy responded, "Well, I can't help it! Not a lot of people find three different hair colors as normal you know! It's probably strange to these people!"

"I highly doubt it. After all, Kakashi is probably in his 20s with grey hair, and Sakura's hair is pink. I'm sure if they were worried about your appearance at all, it would be your clothes: not your hair."

"I'd probably feel more at ease with someone else here, though. I just feel like someone is going to come at me with loads of questions any second now, and I'm telling you, Yami, I don't think I'll be able to handle it!"

It was at that moment that Yugi felt someone lightly tapping his shoulder. At the touch, he jumped slightly and yelped in surprise, causing whoever tapped him to give out a small shriek as well. When Yugi spun around, he recognized the shy girl who he met yesterday. In a slightly calmer state, the small boy said, "Oh, hi Hinata. Sorry about that."

"Oh, it's okay," the young Hyuuga replied timidly, still slightly startled by his earlier actions. While pushing her two pointer fingers together, she smiled at him and said, "So, you got let out of the hospital today? I'm glad you're feeling better, Yugi."

"Yeah, me too," Yugi admitted out loud, glad to be moving around. As his spirit managed to calm down, Yami's retreated back into the confines of the puzzle, seeing that his friend now had a companion to converse with. Curiously, the small child asked, "So, what brings you this way?"

Getting over her shyness, Hinata replied, "Well, I had just finished my training with my team, so I was planning on going home to train with Father and Neji."

Seeming to forget about his earlier nervousness, Yugi smiled at the small talk the two were having. As he enjoyed himself, the small boy asked, "Is Neji a friend of yours?"

Hinata shook her head and answered, "My cousin. He's a year older than I am. I'm a little confused though. Before the Chuunin Exams, Neji used to be so cold towards me; yet now he's helping me become stronger. He's really changed…"

"Well, from the way you're speaking, he must be changing for the better, right?" Yugi asked her happily. Immediately after asking, the indigo-haired girl gave a quick nod, smiling and blushing lightly. Hinata remembered the Chuunin Exams with a strange sense of fondness; during the exams, she was able to improve her strength because the young girl had been inspired by Naruto. Then, he was able to change Neji so much. She was very grateful for all that he had done for her, even if some of those things may have been unintentional…

Realizing something, Hinata asked, "Um, Yugi, where's Naruto? Weren't you and your friends staying with him?"

This seemed to snap the small boy's mind back to the current situation he was in. Rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, he replied, "Well, to tell the truth, I kinda left the hospital early to look around the village for a bit. I sort of got lost, though, and now, I have no idea where I am or where anyone else is for that matter."

Out of slight embarrassment, Yugi laughed a little, and Hinata just looked at him with a slight hint of confusion. Then, an awkward silence filled between the two of them. Suddenly, Yugi got an idea, and he asked, "Um, Hinata, do you think you could show me around the village? Just so I know my way around here?"

Hinata stared back at the small boy with surprise and stuttered, "Y-You want m-me to show you around?"

"Of course," Yugi replied with a soft smile on his face. "We're friends, aren't we?"

In response, the shy Hyuuga blushed a light shade of pink and looked at him curiously. They had only met yesterday, and he already considered her to be his friend? This thought startled Hinata, yet it also gave her a slight sense of joy. As she thought of how kind Yugi was being, the small boy suddenly said, "Oh, wait. You have to train with your family. Perhaps I should go looking around myself…"

"Oh no, it's alright," the young girl quickly said. "I don't have to be home for at least another hour, and if I'm late… well, Father will understand."

"So you'll help me?" Yugi asked her.

Hinata smiled back at him and gave the boy a nod.

"Thanks, Hinata. I really owe you one."

"Oh, don't worry about it. Let's go."

And with that, they both began to walk through the streets with Hinata guiding Yugi along. As they walked together, Yugi thought quietly to himself, "I wonder what the others are up to right now…"

* * *

"…This is weird," Sakura muttered as she and her friends passed through the village streets. "We should've ran into him by now."

For the past several minutes, the group of shinobi and new-comers had traveled in silence towards Shikamaru's house. With that one statement, though, the silence had been broken, and Joey shouted, "Argh! I knew it! Something bad must've happened to him!"

"Guys, relax," Naruto said, trying to calm the enraged teen down. "He's probably off hiding somewhere."

"He wouldn't be the type to hide though," Tristan stated to the young boy. "Plus, I'm sure he wouldn't move around if he was lost."

"Exactly!" Joey exclaimed. "So what if Yugi actually got himself hurt?"

"Or perhaps…" Tea murmured before going quiet, an expression of worry on her face.

"Hm? What is it, Tea?" Sakura asked, hearing her unfinished statement.

The blue-eyed girl was quiet for a moment before she continued, saying, "Well, maybe, while we've been looking for him… Maybe, he ran into those two from yesterday…"

Most everyone in the group began to worry at hearing this suggestion. Before much freaking out could be done, Sasuke looked at the group in annoyance and said, "Will you quit overreacting? I can assure you all Itachi wouldn't go anywhere near him today."

"How can you be so sure?" Joey asked. "It's not like any of us really know Itachi. What makes you think you would know?"

His questions earned a cold glare from the young Uchiha. Joey backed off, and after thinking, he realized what the boy meant and muttered, "Oh yeah. You're related. Almost forgot."

Sasuke didn't acknowledge the last statement and just continued explaining, "Itachi isn't an idiot. If he struck again this soon after coming the other day, the Hokage would be prepared for it. He's the type of person that would avoid making a scene, so unless Yugi wanders away from the eyes of the villagers, I'm sure he'll be fine."

After a moment of silence passed, the blond teen said with a hint of doubt, "Fine, I'll take your word for it, mini-Kaiba. But I'm not going to be satisfied until I see him in one piece."

Suddenly, Tristan said, "Wait a second. I just thought of something. Couldn't Naruto just use that strange technique he used the other day to find Yugi? The, uh….. Shadow Clone Jutsu, I think he called it."

"That actually doesn't sound like a bad idea," Sakura said after pondering the suggestion. "That way, if he's not close to Shikamaru's house, we'd still be able to find him."

"Are you guys sure?" Naruto asked, addressing his teammates. "I mean, shouldn't the three of us go talk to Shikamaru together?"

"I don't think it would be that important, Naruto," Sasuke said calmly. "Besides, you heard the Hokage yesterday. Our job right now is to keep the four of these guys safe; you should go find him before something does happen."

After thinking this over for a brief moment, Naruto smiled and said, "Okay then." He quickly made his hand signs, and multiple clones of Naruto were made. Before leaving, the blond shinobi said, "Good luck with Shikamaru."

Then, before another word could be said, Naruto and the clones ran off in different directions. The group stared after them for a moment. As soon as they were gone, though, Tea asked, "Wait, couldn't Naruto have just left one of the clones here to help us out while the others went to find Yugi?"

Sasuke smirked and said, "You're right; he could've. But Naruto, being who he is, probably didn't think about it. That idiot…"

The older teens looked towards the raven-haired youth, wondering if Sasuke had pleasure in thinking that Naruto was inferior to him. Then, the group continued walking. After a moment, Sakura asked, "Where do you think Yugi is right now, anyways?"

"Hm, I'm not sure."

"Beats me."

"Not a clue."

"Hn."

* * *

Elsewhere in the village, Hinata and Yugi were walking at a leisurely pace along the dirt road, both enjoying the walk quite a bit. The young Hyuuga had already pointed out several nice things to the boy such as the Yamanaka Flower Shop, the heads of the past Hokages engraved in the Cliffside, and even the Ichiraku Ramen Stand, and it all seemed wonderful to the small boy. Although the village seemed pretty primitive when compared to the technologies in Domino, Yugi felt much more at peace here.

Thinking back on Domino, Yugi got a slight hint of sadness on his face while thinking, "I wonder what's happening in Domino right now. We've been gone for well over a day now. I'm sure Grandpa's worried sick about us…"

Noticing the boy's expression, Hinata asked with concern, "Yugi, is something the matter?"

The small child was quickly snapped out of his thoughts and replied, "Oh, uh, to be honest, I guess I'm just a little homesick. But I'll be fine; I promise. Thanks for your concern though, Hinata."

Yugi smiled back, hoping that the young girl wouldn't be too worried about him. Hinata, in response, just smiled and nodded back. After this converse of words, the two walked for a little bit longer in silence, enjoying the relaxing scenery. Eventually, the two stopped to rest. It was then that Yugi noticed that they had arrived in an abandoned part of the village. He noticed a gate that led to a mini-community where small stores and houses had lined the streets.

Although it looked peaceful enough, Yugi couldn't help but feel that something was different about this place; for him, the atmosphere felt tense: almost as if things were too quiet. Curiously, he asked, "Um, Hinata, what is this community here?"

For a moment, she looked towards the place that Yugi was talking about. Then, she replied, "Oh, that's the Uchiha Compound. All of the members belonging to the Uchiha Clan used to live here years ago."

With wonder at this new information, Yugi looked back at the buildings, thinking, "Oh, so this is where Sasuke must've grown up…"

Suddenly, the small boy realized something and asked, "Wait, 'used to'? What do you mean, Hinata?"

The shy girl gave him a look of bewilderment and asked, "Oh, don't you know?"

"Um, I don't think so," Yugi responded, now very curious. "Why? Did something big happen here?"

He suddenly noticed that Hinata became somewhat fidgety and looked at her with confusion. After a moment, she responded, "W-well, you see… I'm not sure if I could say… I-I don't even know where to begin…"

Yugi could tell just from Hinata's voice that something bad had to have happened at this place. Noticing her discomfort, he said, "Um, if it's something you don't feel comfortable with telling me, you don't have to say anything."

"No, it's… okay," she replied after a moment. "It would probably be best if you knew the truth. Besides, if you know what happened here, maybe you can avoid being insensitive to Sasuke."

"… Insensitive?" Yugi thought quietly to himself. As he pondered this, both he and his spiritual counterpart got a bad feeling.

After taking a few deep breaths, the young Hyuuga girl said, "Well, for as long as I can remember, the Uchihas were a very noble clan: much like mine. There are some people that revere them still to this very day. I guess you could say they were the pride and joy of the Leaf Village. Many in the Uchiha Clan used to live in this place, but…"

Hinata paused, as if not sure about if she wanted to continue. Yugi looked towards her in curiosity, wondering why the young girl had grown silent. Then, with a sad look in her eyes, she said, "… But then, without warning, the Uchiha Clan had suddenly been destroyed one night in a mass genocide."

Yugi's amethyst eyes widened in complete shock at this revelation. In a voice filled with disbelief, the small boy asked, "Genocide? You mean they were all killed?!"

As Yugi stood in shock, Yami had asked himself, "But what kind of person could be capable of wiping out an entire family in a single night?"

Hinata looked down at the ground shyly and replied, "Yes. The entire village had been shocked by the sudden massacre. It was so awful; of all of the members of the Uchiha Clan, Sasuke was the only one to survive."

"That's horrible!" the small boy said. Hinata merely nodded at his statement. They both stood in silence for a while, neither able to lighten the mood. Suddenly, Yugi realized something and asked, "Wait, but I thought Sasuke had an older brother. What happened to him that night?"

"… His brother?" Hinata asked, a perplexed look on her face.

The small boy nodded, eager to know the answer to his question. Hinata thought really hard for a while before saying, "Well, I can't really remember him having an older brother. I guess if what you say is true, that really makes you wonder what happened. Either he was killed or out on a mission; either way, I think Sasuke's the only Uchiha in the Leaf Village that has the Sharingan… Why do you ask, Yugi?"

At first, the boy was taken aback by the sudden question, and for a brief moment, he thought about telling her what had happened yesterday to him and his friends. However, he thought better about it, and he simply replied, "Oh, no reason, I guess. I heard rumors about it and was curious, I suppose."

"… Oh," Hinata replied softly. Trying to get their minds off of the dark story, she said, "We should probably get going. We still have more of the village to see, after all."

"Yeah, you're right," Yugi said with a small smile.

So, the two began to move again. As they moved on, Yami walked beside his younger friend in spirit form and asked, "Yugi, why did you choose not to tell Hinata about your encounter with Itachi?"

Yugi sighed and thought to his friend, "Well, I don't think she even knows that Itachi exists right now, and if that's what's keeping her away from him, then I would rather her not know. It's not like I want to make any trouble for her right now."

"… I see," Yami responded after letting his answer soak in.

"Anyways, don't you think there's something strange about what Hinata told us?" Yugi asked.

"You mean about the Uchiha Massacre?" Yami asked his partner. After seeing a nod from the small boy, the older spirit said, "Yes, I do. She claimed that Sasuke was the only survivor, but if that's true, then how is it that Itachi is alive? Was he really out on a mission like Hinata guessed? Or maybe, is there something more to this story?"

"I'm not sure, but perhaps we should save those questions for another time," Yugi suggested. "After all, we've already got enough to worry about as it is."

And with that, their conversation ended, and Yami's spirit retreated back into the confines of the puzzle while Yugi continued to walk alongside Hinata in silence.

* * *

It was coming close to noon now, and the group of friends were still wandering the streets. Luckily, they were nearing their destination.

"Okay guys," Sakura informed the group of teens. "If I remember correctly, Shikamaru's house should be right here."

As they came up to the front door, Tristan said, "Finally. I thought we'd never get there."

Tea looked around, a concerned look on her face, and said, "It's so weird, though. We still haven't bumped into Yugi."

Sasuke said in a slightly annoyed tone, "How many times do we have to tell you not to worry? He'll be just fine on his own. Even if he runs into trouble, Naruto probably will have found him by then."

"Right," Joey replied with a nod, feeling assured of that since Naruto had left earlier. While Sakura rang the doorbell, the blond teen asked, "So, mini-Kaiba, I think I forgot to ask earlier. What's this Shikamaru guy like?"

For the briefest of moments, Sasuke actually looked slightly baffled. A moment of silence passed as he tried to think of the right words to use. Finally, after a while, he said, "Well, let's just say he isn't the type of person you'd expect to be a shinobi."

The older teens looked at him, slightly startled by the response. Then, after a moment of silence, Joey said, "So, pretty much, he's a hippie?"

"What? No!" Sasuke told him. "Or at least, he isn't as far as I know. He's more the type to not want to put effort into his job."

The teens thought a little bit longer before Tristan said, "So wait, do you mean he takes the easy path?"

Sasuke groaned and finally just said, "I mean he's--"

Before he could finish, however, the door opened. Standing before the group was a woman who looked to be in her 30s, maybe 40s if they wanted to push it. She had long brown hair with penetrating eyes. Over her clothes, an apron was placed, telling them that the woman was in the middle of either cooking or cleaning. After looking over the group, the woman said to the shinobi, "Aren't you children Kakashi's students? What brings you here today?"

Cutting to the chase, Sakura said, "Hello, Mrs. Nara. We were wondering if Shikamaru was home."

"Sure he is. Wait right here," the woman said before retreating back into the house. For a moment, the group was left waiting. Suddenly, they saw from the door a tall man appear. He looked to be roughly the same age as the woman. His hair was put in a ponytail that stuck up, and he had a scar or two on his face. At seeing him, the older teens were in awe.

"Wow, he sure looks rugged," Tea said. "Is that him?"

"Nope," Sakura said bluntly, causing the older teens to become slightly startled. Calmly, the other man left, and from behind him came another person. This person, however, was just a child: no older than Sasuke and Sakura were, actually. His hair was styled the same way as the other man's, his hair being colored a dark shade of brown. His eyes were dark with a bored expression in them. The boy wore a grey jacket with a headband identical to the other ninjas attached to the sleeve.

Slowly, he meandered to the door, and at seeing his visitors, he said, "Sasuke? What do you and Sakura want from me?"

"I'll cut to the chase," Sasuke said with a serious tone. "We need your help, Shikamaru."

"Help, huh?" the bored boy said. Then, he looked towards the older teens and said, "I'm guessing those three have something to do with it…"

Sakura replied, "That's right, we need you to help them learn how to fight."

"Wait, this is the guy we need to help us?" Tristan asked in disbelief. "But he's a kid!"

Shikamaru blankly looked at him and said, "Is there something about that you find strange? In other villages, there are shinobi younger than us and stronger than even the most hardened Jounin."

Tristan was slightly taken aback, and Joey chuckled at the boy's remark. In the meantime, Tea said, "Oh, don't mind those two, Shikamaru. It's okay if I call you Shikamaru, right?"

Shikamaru shrugged, indifferent to it. Then, the brunette continued, "Anyways, if you could help us learn how to be shinobi, then we'd be honored and forever grateful."

Hearing this statement, the young boy looked a little surprised and he turned to Sakura and Sasuke and asked, "Wait, you're asking me to train them as ninjas?"

The two of them nodded, and after a moment, the boy said, "Forget it."

The older teens looked shocked at the boy's statement, and after a while, Joey asked angrily, "What? Why won't you help us?"

"You guys are looking for help from the wrong guy. You could find a better teacher somewhere else, no doubt. Besides, having to teach novices how to use jutsu and all sounds like a total drag," Shikamaru stated bluntly.

"What?!" Joey growled out in rage, not expecting such a response.

"But that's just it; we can't find anyone else to train them," Sakura said, trying to plead with Shikamaru.

Then, Sasuke added bluntly, "Besides, you don't have to do the actual training if you don't feel like it; all you have to do is supervise."

"Look, I don't know how many times I gotta say it; find someone else. Honestly, you're not sounding all that convincing. You would've had a better time at getting my attention if Naruto had been here, yelling at me with that obnoxious voice he's got," Shikamaru stated. Then, he looked around curiously and asked, "By the way, where is that little pain in the neck anyways?"

"How should we know?" Sasuke stated calmly. "As far as I can tell, he's still out in the village, looking for Yugi."

Hearing the name mentioned, Shikamaru perked up and asked, "Who?"

"Yugi," Tea said. "He's one of our friends. He was at the hospital this morning, but now he's somewhere in the village. Right now, Naruto's looking for him along with some of his clones."

Shikamaru groaned lightly and said, "Great, so I'm guessing you guys want me to supervise not three, but four people in shinobi training?"

After a pause, he let out a breath and asked the group, "Well, what does he look like?"

Everyone looked at each other for a moment, startled at his question for a moment. Then, Tristan said, "Well, he's kind of a short, little guy. He's got all of this hair that sticks up and is tri-colored; you couldn't miss something like that. He's also got kinda purple-y eyes and this golden pendant that he wears called the Millennium Puzzle."

Another brief moment passed before Shikamaru stepped out of his house. Then, he said, "Alright, let's go."

"Wait, go where?" Tea asked.

"Where do you think?" Shikamaru asked. Then, he said, "Right now, I really don't know if I'll feel like helping you guys, but I figure I could help you find your friend while I mull it over in my head."

Realizing what he wanted to do, most of the group beamed at him, and Tea replied, "Thanks"

As the group started walking again, Joey mumbled, "Geez, this guy is annoying. Why does he act like helping out would be too much work?"

"Like I tried saying earlier, Shikamaru is really quite lazy. That's what I meant by you wouldn't expect him to be a shinobi; he doesn't like putting effort into fighting," Sasuke simply stated.

The boy's earlier comments about Shikamaru finally made sense to Joey. He thought it over as he walked, and after thinking over the kid's tired look in his eyes, his attitude, and his lack of focus, the blond teen only had one thought.

"Never thought I'd ever meet a lazy smartass."

* * *

**Joey: Woohoo! Finally, we get to start our training!**

**Sakura: Well, you seem energetic.**

**Tristan: So, after we get trained, what will we be able to do exactly?**

**Sakura: Well--**

**Joey: Ooh! I bet we'll be able to make hundreds of us to clobber the enemy!**

**Sakura: Actually, that's only if--**

**Tristan: Or maybe we can use some type of awesome paralysis technique!**

**Sakura: Guys, will you let me fin--**

**Joey: Or what if...**

**Tristan: We could move like lightning...**

**Joey and Tristan: ... and hit every food joint in this world!**

**Sakura: WILL YOU TWO SHUT UP?!**

**Next time - Ready, Set, Go! Training Begins!**

* * *

**I swear, those previews for next chapter are getting tougher to think of with every update. How do the guys who work on the Naruto anime come up with these things so easily? **

**Anyways, thanks for reading, and I give you my most sincere apology for taking so long! I promise the next update won't take nearly as long! Starting now, I'm changing things for how I go about with this fanfic. First off, I won't be writing out rough drafts anymore. Now that I have a laptop, I can work on my updates with it and finish chapters quicker. Next, to cover any flaws from getting rid of rough drafts, I'm getting myself a beta-reader to make sure everyone's in character all right. Finally, I'm going to allow anonymous reviews at long last. I'm doing it to hopefully get more reviews; I just hope that the reviews won't be negative.**

**Well, that's it for now. See ya!**

**P.S. I forgot to mention last chapter that for Chapter 7, I had referenced a few things off of volumes 16 and 21 of Naruto. Not sure if it matters now, but I thought if anyone had questions about things I had happen last chapter, it may have been due to info I got from those volumes.**


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